Loft XIX

Type: Transformation and expansion of an aparthotel
Client: Private
Location: Mira, Portugal
Status: ongoing
Project Author: Maria Fradinho
Team: Cristina Paião, Daniel Antunes, Sara Garcia

Project Date: 2024
Plot Area: 1 302,2 m2
Implantation Area: 353,2 m2
Construction Area: 669,6 m2
3D Artist: Alan Costa

The project is intended to renovate and transform a residential mansion originally built in the 19th century, in Mira, District of Coimbra, Portugal.
Its new use comprises a Business Tourism Enterprise, given its proximity to 3 industrial parks. It consists of 11 accommodation units of different typologies (T0, T1 and T2). The outcome is based on the fundamentals of spatial analysis – space, light, scale and materiality. Articulated experiences are configured along the design, being aware the dichotomy between past and present.

Thus, it is proposed to demolish the precarious extension, which lack architectural quality, and to restore the original value, identity and distinction of the 19th building. It is designed two volumes, in a “L” shaped form, and an inner patio delimited by the volumetry and a metallic structure (vertical slats). So, it can grow climbing plants, functioning as a visual barrier and ensuring the right privacy for the patio. The architectural and landscape composition is obtained through a game of fragmentation, solid/void and materiality/shade. The patio is the element of transition, union and convergence. Its poetics and intimacy are established by recognising the landscape elements and their suitable integration, which balance the overall composition. It represents a symbolic expression, rethinking functionality and creating a common space chosen for interaction and dialogue between users.

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The main access is for vehicles and pedestrian use. It is located at the southern end of the front façade and guides the user to the patio or the parking area (located at the lowest level of the plot). Different circulation paths create fluidity and mobility, converging to the central patio (or the connecting element).
The programmatic distribution begins in the patio, namely the entry to the lobby which is located in the older building and visibly marked through a large opening. Some apartments (1st and 2nd floor), lobby and technical areas are organised in this building. In the lobby area is located the pre-existing spiral staircase, a beautifully ornamented example of the epoch. The remain apartments are organised in the new building, and its access is made directly through the patio or the exterior metal staircase.
Apart from the accommodation unit that completely faces the public road and benefits from the noblest spaces and balcony, the remaining ones face the patio and green spaces, dignifying its interior-exterior relation.

The image is achieved by the metaphor between past and present dichotomy, which is attained through spatiality and materiality. The authenticity and poetic presence of the 19th building embodies its own history and positions itself in a symbiosis with its new surroundings.
The intervention in the older building is meticulous. The front façade is almost unchanged, respecting and emphasising the aesthetics of the epoch – namely the choice of the colour (beige), and the restoration of wrought iron details and stonework. On the rear elevation, a large opening will be placed, length the entire width of the lobby, revealing the main access and providing a better visual permeability. The remain openings resemble the same proportion of the existing ones.
The image of the new building is defined by a vertical composition, with a regular metric, disrupting the longitudinal rhythm.

The essence of the place is given by its unique qualities and integrates past memories and local distinctiveness. This interdependence gives Loft XIX its own identity, which is ought to be personified in the experience of the place. Thus, the interior decoration is inspired by the old “pirolitos” factory and its legacy, which was installed in the pre-existing building from 1960 until 1984. The theme is adapted an embodied in the atmosphere of the space, as a remembrance of a typical business from the second half of the 20th century in Portugal, which is also part of the local collective memory.