Belas Artes Residence

Rua da Carreira presents itself as a charismatic street, full of memories still present in the life of the city. It is these traces that the city is interested in telling and remembering and even adding new contributions that allow the reinforcement of the inherited legacies, preserving them or giving them new meaning in the dynamics of urban life. It was with this intention that the project proposed to return this building to the city, removing it from the state of degradation to which it had been abandoned, creating conditions to revive the building and give it new life.

The building dates back to the 18th century and still has architectural features that give it a value of municipal interest that must be safeguarded. The reconstruction works bet on the maintenance of the volumetric set, of the roofs and ceilings of the built volumes, namely the two-storey volume that directly faces the street, and also on the maximum recovery of the pre-existent architectural and decorative elements, both interior and exterior. The project kept almost entirely the façades with all their relevant particularities, as well as, their interior essence, namely by maintaining the masonry ceilings or stucco planes, which were handcraftedly restored and preserved in the old halls converted into flats, thus contributing for the valorisation and identity of the spaces. The maintenance of the wooden staircase has made it possible to preserve a crucial and emblematic element of the property. In turn, the flats are developed in distinct volumes, adapting to the pre-existing built set, taking advantage of the spatial diversity, which contributes to the offer of a completely different and innovative product. The intervention was essentially guided by the preservation of the most important cultural, architectural, historical and artistic elements of the building, which contribute to the valorisation and identity of the space.

In short, the construction is now composed of 17 accommodation units, assigned to tourist use, complemented by autonomous spaces on the ground floor intended for commerce or services. The development is aimed at users who value local history and wish to inhabit spaces of unique refinement.