• Calm in the midst of commotion

    Lisbon, Portugal

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Photography: Stephan Julliard 
03 / 03 / 2023
This pied-à-terre is found in the Chiado, one of Lisbon’s busiest areas. An apartment in a renovated 18th-century building, minimalist in style, with Nordic influences and plenty of eye-catching pieces. An apartment to come home to.  
Rui Ribeiro was born in Angola, brought up in Vila Real and then moved to Lisbon at the age of 17. Five years later, he was off to London to study and has lived there ever since. It’s from the land of His Majesty that he runs the Rui Ribeiro Studio, an architecture and interior design studio featuring a range of international projects in places as far-flung as England, the United States and the Middle East.
About ten years ago, he bought this apartment in the Chiado, not only to have a home in Portugal, but also as a way of missing Lisbon less. A task that wasn’t easy, as it took five years to find the pied-à-terre that he had always dreamed of.
«At the time, there was very little on offer. Lisbon was very different; it wasn’t the fashionable city it is today. And I had a very specific idea of what I wanted: a first floor with high ceilings, a lift and a garage. Whenever I was in Lisbon I’d go round looking at properties, and when I saw this one, I made the decision very quickly», he recalls.
The house is in a restored 18th-century building and the whole project, which took about a year and a half to complete, was designed by Rui and his studio. 
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
With the exception of the skirting boards, the renovation that had been carried out previously hadn’t preserved any of the original architectural details, so the designer opted for a considerably minimalist interior. He restored the high ceilings in every room and increased door and window sizes in order to make the house as spacious as possible. «The scale of the apartment has been completely changed as a result. There’s a fantastic sense of height,» he says. 
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
  • Calm in the midst of commotion
For more information, visit Rui Ribeiro Studio website.
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