CREATIVE STUDIO

SELECTED PROJECT / 2024

Alfama Courtyard House

A compact Lisbon residence organized around a shaded courtyard, where pale stone, cork-lined rooms, and carefully framed openings turn the city's bright Atlantic light into a calm sequence of interiors.

0103

TYPOLOGY

Interiors

LOCATION

Lisbon, Portugal

YEAR

2024

CLIENT

Private Residence

AREA

3,900 sq ft

STUDY DURATION

3-day dawn-to-dusk photographic study

01 / PROJECT NARRATIVE

DESIGN STUDIO

Estudio Patio

SERVICES

Architecture photography / Interiors / Courtyard sequence / Material details

A house shaped by shade and court

Alfama Courtyard House adapts a narrow urban plot on Lisbon’s eastern slope into a sequence of rooms gathered around a planted open-air court. The existing street wall is retained, while the interior is opened carefully to daylight, cross-breezes, and long diagonal views.

City, climate, enclosure

Deep reveals, sliding cork-oak screens, and pale mineral surfaces temper strong Atlantic light without making the rooms feel closed. The photographic study follows this balance from the quiet street elevation to the brighter courtyard and upper terraces.

Images were made from early morning through dusk to show the court changing from a cool source of reflected light into the social center of the house, while close studies record the junctions between retained tile, new stone, timber, and plaster.

02 / DESIGN FRAMEWORK

PRINCIPLES / PROGRAM / PERFORMANCE

STUDIO NOTE / 01

The courtyard is not an empty center; it is the room that gives every other room its light, air, and measure.

Ines Duarte, Design Director - Estudio Patio

Design principles

Make shade an architectural element. Bring light from the center. Preserve useful fragments rather than reconstructing a false past. Let materials age naturally. Keep circulation in contact with air, planting, and changing weather.

Together these principles create a house that is precise without feeling precious, allowing daily life, seasonal light, and the patina of use to complete the architecture over time.

Spatial program

The ground floor contains the kitchen, dining room, and a flexible guest room arranged around the lower courtyard. Sliding panels allow the main rooms to connect as one continuous living space or close down for privacy.

Two family bedrooms, a shared bathroom, and a small library occupy the middle floor, linked by a bridge crossing the court. The upper level contains the primary suite and a sheltered terrace with views toward the Tagus.

Storage, laundry, and mechanical services are consolidated along the party wall, leaving the courtyard edges open for circulation, daylight, and planting.

PERFORMANCE SNAPSHOT

SITE AREA

6,500 sq ft

LEVELS

BEDROOMS

BATHROOMS

DAYLIGHT COVERAGE

81% of regularly occupied spaces

LIGHTING DEMAND

39% lower modeled annual energy demand

PRIMARY ORIENTATION

South / southeast courtyard exposure

03 / PROCESS AND OUTCOMES

CHALLENGE / RESPONSE / RESULT

A / CONSTRAINT

Project challenge

The original house was divided into dark cellular rooms with little ventilation and no meaningful relationship to the rear garden. Heritage constraints required the street facade and fragments of historic tilework to remain, while the compact footprint left little room for conventional extensions.

The image brief needed to explain how a restrained intervention could transform light, circulation, and environmental performance without losing the density and texture that make the Alfama context distinct.

B / INTERVENTION

Design response

A central section of the plan was removed to form a sheltered courtyard extending through all three levels. New openings are aligned across the court so rooms borrow light and view from one another, while perforated screens protect privacy from neighboring roofs and windows.

Limestone floors continue across thresholds, lime plaster amplifies reflected daylight, and cork-lined joinery provides warmth and acoustic softness. Retained azulejo panels are treated as fragments within the new architecture rather than decorative surfaces applied afterward.

C / RESULT

Project outcome

The completed residence feels open and connected despite its narrow footprint. Every regularly occupied room now receives natural light and operable ventilation from the street, courtyard, or upper terrace, reducing daytime energy use and improving summer comfort.

The finished photographic series supports the studio’s residential portfolio and editorial submissions, presenting the project as a careful conversation between Lisbon’s inherited fabric and a quieter contemporary way of living.

PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS

MATERIAL PALETTE

Pale limestone / lime plaster / cork oak joinery / handmade azulejo / bronzed steel

ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY

Cross-ventilation, deep window reveals, cork insulation, solar thermal hot water, rainwater reuse, and courtyard planting

COLLABORATORS

Estudio Patio / Estrutura Clara / Jardim Aberto / Lume Lighting

COMPLETION STATUS

Completed / Residential commission / 2024

04 / SPATIAL SEQUENCE

CIRCULATION / GARDEN / LIGHTWELL

Material studies tested how lime plaster, limestone, cork, and retained tile would register under Lisbon's hard midday sun and softer reflected courtyard light.

05 / IMAGE STUDY

DETAILS / MATERIAL / LIGHT