The Porto-based architecture studio Fala Atelier has designed an office space in the Portuguese city of Porto that is different from the conventional ones.

The 115 m² space combines white, blue, and cream colors with round shapes found in the door knobs or in the lamps on the corrugated ceiling, which allow artificial light to be combined with the natural light that enters through the windows on the side.
Fala Atelier had to demolish the previous partition walls and removed the layers of plaster from the concrete columns in the center of the space. In addition, a partition wall and the new corrugated ceiling were introduced.

The most colorful features are the cream-colored doors and the bluish ceiling that gives the project its name of "Dim Cloud", in which there is a uniform grid of mini-lamps that make the space "glow and reverberate". The floor has been constructed with inexpensive materials to fit the budget.


Rendering. Dim Cloud by Fala Atelier.
 

Description of project by Fala Atelier

A dull commission:
A bland office space was to be reinvented. Previous partitions were demolished and layers of plaster were peeled off from the centered concrete columns. Two convoluted surfaces are introduced—one becomes a dividing wall, the other makes a new ceiling. The complex intersection is carefully measured and calibrated.

Secondary programs find their places behind the stepped surface. Doors are proudly present, while the floor is proudly cheap. The blue wavy ceiling is populated by an even grid of minase lamps, suggesting references from another time and place. Beams of light are reflected on a multitude of broken surfaces. The space gleams and reverberates.

More information

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Architects
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Fala Atelier.- Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Lera Samovich, Ana Lima, Francesca Girardi, Virginia Riccieri.
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Client
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Private.
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Area
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115 sqm.
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Dates
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2021.
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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: November 16, 2022
Cite: "A very different kind of office refurbishment. Dim Cloud by Fala Atelier " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-very-different-kind-office-refurbishment-dim-cloud-fala-atelier> ISSN 1139-6415
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