Tiago Do Vale Arquitectos

Caminha Apartment

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

Caminha Apartment

Tiago do Vale Arquitectos

PHOTO
Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography (19), Tiago do Vale Arquitectos (16)

BUDGET
$10K - 50K

AREA
0 sqft - 1000 sqft

YEAR
2016

LOCATION
Caminha, Portugal

TYPE
Residential > Private House

A GRAPHICAL REFURBISHMENT BY THE SEA

Built In The 80’s, This Apartment Was In Dire Need Of Refurbishment. Both Its Infrastructures And Organization Were Dated, So The Intention Was To Make The Most Of Its Potentialities While Bringing Its Living Experience To Contemporary Standards.

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

With Just Over 400 Ft2 (40 M2) Of Surface, This Small Apartment By The Sea Was Unwelcoming Due To A Choice Of Darker Materials, 30 Years Of Intense Use And A Not Particularly Qualified Compartmentation (Though In Tune With Its Time).

The client required a functional and infrastructural update while maintaining the original organization (with an independent bedroom) and keeping the costs down.

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

The practice’s strategy was to enhance the perception of the apartment’s light and space by utilizing both a very minimal approach and the repetition of the white color.

The central piece of this project, though, is a blue volume that solves simultaneously the apartment’s doors and the kitchen cabinets, an integral gesture that brings color but specially a playful, unpretentious tone to the whole apartment.

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

With its blue hue and integrated hooks for the beach accessories, it brings the summer inside.

Half of the dividing wall between bedroom and living room was turned into a sliding panel, while still maintaining the original door placement on the bedroom.This allows for both an open space experience -which quite suits the diminute area of the apartment- or a more conventional one at the clients’ discretion.

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

While this design is clearly contemporary there was always a willingness to keep textured surfaces and detailing that would still give a humanized scale to the spaces.

The project achieved that with a wink to the 80’s of the original construction, maintaining the ceiling moldings and introducing a surface of patterned tiles on the kitchen area.

Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography

This small apartment provides a relaxing experience, bringing the beach inside, and is now fit for 30 more years of simple, joyful use.


Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography
Caminha Apartment
© Joao Morgado - Architecture Photography


Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos


Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos


Caminha Apartment
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
Caminha Apartment
© Tiago do Vale Arquitectos

Tiago Do Vale Arquitectos
T +351 253 295027
Tiago Do Vale Arquitectos
R. Dom Frei Caetano Brandão 121, 4700-031 Braga, Portugal