Residential Complex on Avenida Brasil

Urban Transition

The residential complex situated on Porto's Atlantic front consists of two contiguous buildings, and its project aims to resolve a delicate urban transition.

The northern building replaces an existing ruined house and completes a set of tall, narrow buildings (eight floors) that characterise real estate investments on this front since the late 20th century. The southern building results from the integral rehabilitation of a mansion (two floors) to which a “loggia” was added in the attic. This mansion belongs to the relatively low-built front that marked the first urbanisation of Foz in the early 20th century.

The project's advantage lies in the fact that both plots belong to the same owner, who did not permit the demolition of the aforementioned mansion; this allowed transforming the southern gable of the taller building into an extensive transition facade between scales.

With the transition resolved, two distinct languages were chosen for the complex: the northern building is marked by an ochre-coloured exposed concrete “exo-skeleton,” allowing large balconies overlooking the sea and the courtyard; the southern mansion was delineated in different fractions, taking advantage of the interior masonry and partition structure while preserving its spatial and ornamental qualities.

The two buildings share a system of vertical accesses and the courtyard, a solution that does not destroy but rather enhances their urban integration.