Restoration, Alfama
Casa da Calçada
A 1790 townhouse, five floors of lime and pine, repaired one floor at a time.
In Lisbon and the Alentejo, we repair old rooms and draw new ones, with lime, timber and the light already there
A studio of six, small on purpose. We take few projects, stay on site, and leave rooms that are easy to live in and easy to mend.
What we do
New houses
Small houses drawn for one plot and one family, built in stone, lime and timber.
Restoration
Old flats and farmhouses repaired with the trades and materials they were built with.
Interiors
Kitchens, baths and the rooms between, planned around how you actually live.
Joinery
Cupboards, shelves and doors drawn by us and made in oak by two workshops near Lisbon.
Lime finishes
Limewash and lime plaster, mixed on site, for walls that breathe and wear well.
Two trades, one slow way of building
Marta draws, Rui builds. They met on a farmhouse roof in 2011 and have kept the studio small ever since, so that one of them is always on site.
Marta Reis
Architect
Rui Vaz
Master builder
From the first survey to the last coat of limewash, the same two people answer your calls. We draw, cost and build with a small circle of trades we have known for years.
From lime to light
We start with what a room already has: its walls, its floor, its window and the hours of sun it gets.
The walls
Lime plaster and limewash let old stone dry out and give new walls a soft, deep finish that mends easily.
The light
We draw every room around its windows, then choose finishes by watching how they look at four in the afternoon.
Work in progress
Two projects are on site this year. We post a short note from each one every few weeks in the journal.
New house, Alentejo
Monte do Freixo
A low house of rammed earth and cork, set beside an old olive grove.
From the site
Lisbon & Alentejo
It starts with a visit
Shall we walk through your rooms together?
Tell us about the place, the people who live there and what is not working. We reply within three working days.