Portuguese architecture studio based in Porto, Fala Atelier, was self commissioned to reform this old building lost among the dense and compact urban fabric of the city of Porto.

Fala Atelier designs an almost epidermal intervention, ordering elements and generating a new identity with some new materials and colors.
Fala Atelier, is a studio led by led by Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares and Ahmed Belkhodja, organizes the reform with its own stylistic language.

The ground floor is an open plan atelier connected to the garden. The first floor has a studio apartment with a unique white-and-pink-striped door. The last level is taken by the bigger apartment where six rooms are carefully organised around a tall central hall.

All the interior spaces are white with a few exposed concrete elements and a couple of exceptional moments. The doors are lacquered in glossy white with exposed plywood frames. The soft chess pattern of the blue terrazzo floor doesn’t match the walls and binds all the levels.

Living and working in the same building is a delicate convenience. Each level of the building is an independent field of experimentation where the main common thread is a certain sense of joy.


Floor plans and elevations. House, with three doors, renovation by Fala Atelier.
 

Project description by Fala

The old building is hidden in the city centre. It has three levels, three entrance doors and a distorted outline. Each floor suggests a different spatial logic but shares the same language, the same materiality and the same set of banal elements.

The ground floor is an open plan atelier connected to the garden. The first floor has a studio apartment with a unique white-and-pink-striped door. The last level is taken by the bigger apartment where six rooms are carefully organised around a tall central hall. All the interior spaces are white with a few exposed concrete elements and a couple of exceptional moments. The doors are lacquered in glossy white with exposed plywood frames. The soft chess pattern of the blue terrazzo floor doesn’t match the walls and binds all the levels.

The house has only two elevations. The original front façade was unbalanced and slightly curved. It is re-structured: the three doors get a strong colour, one window disappears, a marble circle is introduced and the tall hat becomes visible from afar. The back façade is rebuilt. The proportion is very different from the front one, taller and narrower. A clear hierarchy reflects the program distribution. It begins with the thin round freestanding column. The pink door contrasts with the large opening and four identical windows suggest a domestic use in the upper levels. The white-painted concrete wall flies above the fragile glazed surface. The circle disturbs its symmetry and finishes the figure.

Living and working in the same building is a delicate convenience. Each level of the building is an independent field of experimentation where the main common thread is a certain sense of joy.

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Architects
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Project team
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Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Costanza Favero, Rute Peixoto, Lera Samovich, Elisa Sassi, Joana Sendas, Paulo Sousa.
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Collaborators
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Landscape.- Pomo.
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Contractor
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Engilaco lda.
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Client
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Fala Atelier.
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Area
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315 m².
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Dates
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2017-2018.
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Location
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Porto, Portugal.
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Photography
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Fala Atelier is a naïve architecture practice based in Porto, led by Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares and Ahmed Belkhodja. Established in 2013, the atelier works with methodic optimism on a wide range of projects, from territories to birdhouses.

Filipe Magalhães (Porto, 1987) graduated in architecture at faculdade de arquitectura do Porto and Fakulteta za Arhitekturo in Ljubljana; wrote the thesis ‘between the abstract and the figurative’. Worked with Harry Gugger in Basel and Aanaa in Tokyo. Visiting professor at Bratislava’s faculty of architecture.

Ana Luisa Soares (Porto, 1988) graduated in architecture at faculdade de arquitectura do Porto and Tokyo university; wrote the thesis ‘The matter of ideas’. Worked with Harry Gugger in Basel and Toyo Ito in Tokyo. Visiting professor at Bratislava’s faculty of architecture.

Ahmed Belkhodja (Lausanne, 1990) graduated in architecture at ETH Zurich after having also studied in Lausanne, Gothenburg and Singapore; worked with Harry Gugger in Basel, Obra architects in New York, and Atelier Bow-wow in Tokyo.
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Published on: January 7, 2022
Cite: "House, with three doors, renovation by Fala Atelier " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/house-three-doors-renovation-fala-atelier> ISSN 1139-6415
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