The Arquitectos Aliados studio was picked to steer this refurbishment project, which began in 2016, and included the interiors, where there was a particular effort to blend the originality of 1970s Portuguese design with contemporary architecture.
Let’s start with the century-old façade, influenced by early 20th-century French architecture. On the ground floor — designed as a retail space, where a decoration shop currently operates — the entrance is framed by a granite base and frieze with high-relief figures of Sumerian inspiration, flanked by an entrance doorway to the main building. This is crowned by three arched windows — contrasting with the asymmetry of the upper floors, where the colonnade and windows of Parisian design feature prominently — which address the requirements of the interiors.