Santa Isabel

Description

Located within a historic block in Lisbon, between Rua de Santa Isabel and Travessa das Terras de Sant’Ana, this project proposes an integrated intervention that brings together heritage rehabilitation, new construction, and the upgrading of urban space, forming a complex composed of three distinct buildings.

This is an urban context of transition between different scales and city typologies — Avenida Álvares Cabral and the surroundings of the Church of Santa Isabel — where buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries coexist alongside some vacant or “in-waiting” plots, creating a reality marked by contrasts. The ensemble covered by the project comprises three buildings of distinct character, which the proposal seeks to address by enhancing and articulating their profound differences: two 19th-century buildings — of differing scales and qualities — and a semi-empty plot.

In an exercise that must meet current requirements regarding housing standards, comfort, accessibility, sustainability, regulations, and so forth, the project seeks a point of balance between preservation and transformation. In the existing buildings, the intervention focuses on the rehabilitation of the façades and the retention of materials and volumes, preserving the most significant elements of their urban expression. Internally, spaces are reorganized and adapted to contemporary standards of habitability.

The new building adopts a contemporary architectural language in which, both in its volumetric composition — with a clear reading of the stone base — and in the vertical rhythm of its openings, it establishes a direct relationship with the surrounding context, while avoiding mimicry and asserting its own identity. At the same time, the articulation between buildings from different periods is mediated by discreet transitional volumes that ensure physical and visual continuity, reinforcing the unity of the ensemble.

In this exercise, where three buildings form a singular set of irregular courtyards, it became a natural option to assign these spaces a central role, acting as a kind of “hinge” within the complex. Freed from precarious constructions and degraded annexes, they are transformed into permeable gardens and places for dwelling and leisure, contributing to environmental improvement and to the quality of life of the residents. These green spaces, which function as natural extensions of the dwellings, also extend onto the extensive roof of the new building, reinforcing the strategy of increasing green structures within this consolidated urban fabric.