Monochrome Apartment

An ordinary beach apartment in Costa Nova serves as the starting point for a complete renovation. From the surroundings we’ve elected the traditional wooden houses of the region painted in bold colours, the ocean, the lagoon, and the sky reflected in the mirroring waters as a leitmotif. A limited budget gave rise to a radical answer. A unique action: one single colour for the whole space, for all architectural elements, creates an intense atmosphere, a sense of unreality that slows down the breathing and allows one to discover the moment, the surrounding space.
One enters in the middle of a corridor that both connects and separates the social area and the private zones. The social area is unified by a long worktop, where one can cook, and also leads to the balcony with its view of the dunes. Opposite this, a line of cabinets creates a boundary that is penetrated by a corridor that can either be closed off or leads to the bedrooms, thus providing the necessary privacy for various simultaneous uses. As one moves through the house, the attention paid to the contours becomes noticeable, allowing the light to flow softly through the space, intensifying the feeling of harmony. The sense of a single body that is delicate, envelops and sooths one. Like a permanent backdrop that highlights and autonomises the figures in the space.

Location: Costa Nova, Aveiro, Portugal | Client: Private | Architecture: João Carmo Simões and Daniela Sá; Collaboration: Marta Tornelli and Maria Luís Prates | Materials: Ink, wood, mdf, plaster