Calçada do Lavra building

— Description by Jorge Mealha —

This project concerns the rehabilitation of an old building, presumably built at the end of the XIX century, but that was only registered in 1906. A cost-controlled operation, proposed by the owner, Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, intended to rehab this building that was at risk of collapse.
The project seeks to preserve as much as possible of the original elements of the building – floors and walls – proposing a reformulation of the existing subdivision, which was characterized by having too cramped spaces, resulting in the creation of eight apartments, two of which are duplex.

Taking advantage of the need for the introduction of a lift, the entrance lobby is redesigned, suggesting a path that bypasses the volume – released from outer walls – required for the placing of this equipment The new design of the atrium that extends its original dimension, emphasizes the perspective on the existent ladder, which is maintained, allowing for a better natural lighting and offering a few scale games and cross perspectives.
Whenever possible, the strategy was to preserve the existing floor – pine wood – assuming the amendments in the areas where due to its degradation it has been replaced The walls and ceilings are plastered and painted white Some elements are finished with stone or birth.

The shutters of the windows were restored and painted white, while maintaining the original Access doors to the apartments are also maintained, leaving marks of previous interventions and wood working as notes of color and texture on the stairs.
The external walls and elements are painted in white in their entirety in order to allow the design of its parts to he read by the incident light throughout the day.

— interview —

“This apartments where for people in a process of social reintegration, people taken from the streets, people that for any reason had some kind of problems…
There was the concern of trying to draw houses that could be serene, and that could pass an image of - sophistication is not the best word - but that would take away from this apartments the image of something that is provisory, or for people sheltering.”

“And the recovery of this building was, in order to house two to four people, depending on the dimensions of each apartment, people with this characteristics, and at the time I visited some of the buildings of the institution, to whom I gained an admiration, it was something completely unknown to me, the range of the social action being taken by this institution, and where I met some of this people in this process.”

“This two strands, one with the dimension of the architectural speech, the other with a human dimension very strong, conditioned the perspective on this project. There was the concern of trying to draw houses that could be serene, and that could pass an image of - sophistication is not the best word - but that would take away from those apartments the image of something that is provisory, or for people sheltering.
I searched for that, and it's why the project has a series of details in its drawing, that in my point of view makes the houses very comfortable. We recovered most of the pavement, as part of the program because people always bring some stuff with them, and while they don't have their houses they need some storage, so we created this cabinets in birch.
There was this concerne, the creation of cozy spaces for this people. About the building itself, it's a pragmatic intervention, it now has two skeletons, we got an iron skeleton joined with the existing wood skeleton, it's not very relevant, but in the façade we chosen to make it as clear as possible.”