An apartment in Portugal with clean, soft lines

Studio Fala renovates a building in Amarante, enhancing its facades and interior floors organised around a central fireplace dictating the distribution of space. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Drawing. 

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Plans. 

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Visualization. 

Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney

Photo © Fala 

An apartment in Amarante, Portugal, within a building on the street, has been transformed into a well-divided space that seems to be suspended and almost in motion. The renovation project is by studio Fala, which renovated the interior and facades while trying to preserve the building’s history and original traits, at the same time adding new features.

The facades have a new face that emerges from the painted window frames, the renovation of the old granite and the addition of new marble details that show how the exteriors have also been enhanced. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney. Photo ©Ivo Tavares

The flat, spread over five floors and 290 square metres, is built around a new added structure: a concrete fireplace that crosses the various levels with its chimney and serves to heat the ground floor room. The chimney dictates the layout of the space, organising it. A staircase wraps around and connects the rooms, emerging with its light pink hue, matching the mint green used for the ceiling and floor. 

In the house, walls and partitions with rounded shapes separate spaces, making the dwelling fluid, functional, almost soft. It seems that the house shapes new forms and expands through the use of the circle, the semicircle and curved geometries positioned around the new fulcrum of the architecture, the fireplace, drawing new spaces and areas. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney. Photo ©Ivo Tavares
  • House Around a Chimney
  • Amarante, Portugal
  • Private apartment
  • Fala
  • Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Lera Samovich, Ana Lima, Joana Sendas, Paulo Sousa
  • 290 sqm
  • 2020
Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo ©Ivo Tavares 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Drawing. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Plans. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala 

Visualization. 

Fala, House Around a Chimney Photo © Fala