Casa Bella
Buy a house to rehabilitate. In a short time, we transformed an old house in Porto into a beautiful house - Casa Bella. Preserving the architecture of this building, giving it new life in such a short time, was the highlight of this project.
Recovering a dilapidated building in the centre of Porto is always a challenge. Executing a project like this in a short time made the whole process even more challenging for the entire team. The main objective of the restoration of Casa Bella was to increase the quality of life of the owners, with the improvement of living conditions, through the restoration of the entire property, and the conservation of some structural elements of the house, which give it its beauty and uniqueness of an old house.
We designed a renovated Casa Bella and another space was born in the historic centre of Porto with the OSPACE quality seal.
The house already contained some architectural elements typical of old buildings, such as an interior oculus on the wall adjacent to the stairs, wooden and glass doors in all rooms with round handles, and a natural wooden floor. The restoration of the interior walls, with conservation in stucco, and of the stairs, handrails and wooden flooring was essential to improve Casa Bella's thermal insulation, as well as the acoustics.
Rehabilitating an old house requires special care in planning, construction and choice of materials, so the first step is to assess the condition of the property to identify its needs and intervene accordingly, creating adjusted and functional solutions that, simultaneously, allow maintain aesthetic elements required by the customer.
The design process of the salamander that crosses the entire house at height was also challenging. As it is a wood-burning stove, even though it is an easy-to-install piece of equipment, issues were raised in terms of the construction of the heating system, particularly concerning smoke output and heat recovery. On the other hand, the planning of its location in the room was also important, so that it respected the air outlet duct, could be better used and also served as an imaginary division of the open space.
In the kitchen, the work focused mainly on the construction of the exhaust air system above the island, which was an element that did not exist before.
On the upper floor, it was decided to also keep the skylight already existing on the stairs and the rounded door for the closet, the latter preserved in stucco as well as the walls. In the closet, the second skylight of the house was kept and the space was painted in a dark grey tone for a feeling of refuge from the place. In the remaining walls of Casa Bella, white was used, which contrasts with the wood of the floor and stairs, balancing the entire space.
Finally, the restoration of the exterior was also a task worked on by the team, with the rehabilitation of the floor with more modern materials and the construction of a semi-attached wooden pergola for greater privacy on the terrace.
