Elements | LIMIT architecture studio

The refurbished space is a street-level shop that currently functions as a real estate agency and is an integrated part of a 1960s building. The space has already taken different uses in the past and suffered various changes over the years, with small interventions predominantly in its finishings.
This project aimed to carry out a more strategic intervention that would act on the store's public service spaces, maintaining its last function as a real estate agency.
The pre-existing space was ample and lacking hierarchy, maintaining its relationship with the street via a sequence of windows and doors.
In terms of the programmatic demands, it was defined the necessity to promote a space for receiving the clients with two work spaces, a waiting space, a meeting room and a small office for a more individualized service.
Being a relatively small space to receive customers, the approach had to be clear and at the same time expressive. Taking into consideration the activity of the shop, which is linked to the built environment, the concept is characterised by the identification and individualisation of elements. These elements like the ‘’window’’, the ‘’door’’, the ‘’wall’’, the ‘’beam’’, the ‘’table’’, had their geometrical and formal properties used in a compositional logic, distributed in order to respond to the program and to stand out as independent pieces.
The openings that communicate with the exterior suggested a possible logic of space hierarchy, positioning the meeting space towards an independent window and the reception space oriented towards the main entrance door. The waiting room is linked with the reception space, that in turn guarantees access to the meeting room and the small office.

The element ‘’beam’’ runs through the whole space, defining the reception zone and the division of the meeting space and the office. A circular window allows, in a single element, to link both the meeting room and the office with the reception space. In order to reinforce this idea of elements, the door that gives access to the meeting room is detached from the wall plane and topped off with a heavier volume. In the composition, the spaces between the elements were fitted with a window, to ensure natural light for all spaces.

Another important element of this - almost plastic - compositional logic is the lighting. Linear lighting was used to reinforce axes and alignments, circular illumination to focus on the centrality, and some spot lighting that helped to balance the composition.
A composition of elements!