Lasting a year, the process brought together a multidisciplinary team of architects, local builders, artists, and an extensive network of partners. In the first phase of the building work, the steps leading to Rua das Escadinhas, an unusual urban device connecting the upper and lower levels of the western hill of Monte Xisto, were rehabilitated. The steps and handrail were repaired and a new boundary between the public steps and the private land adjoining them were created in the form of benches, allowing the stairs to be used as a resting place.

Following the path that links the foot of the steps to the River Leça, an old ruin was rebuilt and transformed into a seating area surrounded by nature. Small-scale interventions restored the site’s original character, undoing the precarious interventions carried out over the years. The meticulous rehabilitation of the site, which included adding benches in every ‘room’ in the building, has encouraged people to spend time there and transformed it into a place for socializing.

This project was promoted by INSTITUTO and designed by paulo moreira architectures, with Verkron, in the framework of Bairros Saudáveis initiative, also with support by InResidence / Ágora – Cultura e Desporto and União de Freguesias – Custóias, Leça do Balio e Guifões.

Text provided by the architect.

The interior is utterly simple while equally rich, partially sunken to emphasise the presence of the surrounding greenery. Thus, in a Loos-like manner, two representative areas are defined by the different floors, with different degrees of intimacy. The only walls are the longitudinal sides of the space, in continuity with the perimeters of the garden. The bathroom and storage room are hidden behind a unitary cabinet of lacquered wood, whose scale deliberately sits somewhere between architecture and furniture. A palace shouldn’t be too simple after all.

Text provided by the architect.