Architects: spaceworkers
Area: 344 ft²
Year: 2022
Photographs: Ivo Tavares Studio
Manufacturers: Bairro Design
Category: Houses, Renovation
Principal Architects: Henrique Marques, Rui Dinis
Architects: João Ortigão, Marco Santos, Tiago Maciel
Furniture Design: Bairro Design
Finance Director: Carla Duarte – cfo
Project: Refurbishment
Project Year: 2017 – 2022
Client: Private
Country: Portugal
Urban Islands housing project designed in Porto proposes a reinterpretation of the city’s historic urban islands—clusters of narrow, semi-detached workers’ dwellings from the 19th century. The intervention preserves the original typology while introducing a contemporary spatial configuration that reconnects with the typology’s socio-historical legacy. By reactivating one of these 4×4-meter houses, the design integrates public and private programs across two levels, marked by a distinctive black staircase that defines circulation and spatial rhythm. Completed as part of a broader initiative to recover Porto’s vernacular housing, the project revisits architectural memory while addressing modern needs through material contrast, light manipulation, and spatial compression. The exterior maintains the form of the original unit, distinguished by new black shutters and a bold black volume framing the entrance.
Urban islands represent a significant chapter in the architectural and social history of Porto. These compact semi-detached dwellings, typically arranged along narrow patios behind bourgeois homes, were introduced in the 19th century to house the influx of working-class families migrating to the city. Each house generally featured a single door and window opening onto the shared corridor, which provided access to the rest of the cluster.
Originally intended as modest worker housing, these units gradually became overcrowded and deteriorated over time.
During the 1970s, governmental rehousing initiatives sought to dismantle the islands and relocate residents to newly constructed social housing complexes on the city’s outskirts. Despite widespread demolition, many islands still survive and remain embedded in Porto’s urban fabric as witnesses to a socio-spatial typology that resists the anonymity often associated with modern housing estates.
The current project reimagines one of these historic units as a prototype for renewed urban living. The base typology remains intact—a 4-meter-wide, 4-meter-deep, two-story structure with three windows and a single door.
The architectural intervention reorganizes the interior across two levels, now linked by a newly inserted staircase that establishes spatial continuity from public to private zones.
The living and kitchen areas form a unified space at ground level, oriented around one of the façade windows. A striking black staircase, beginning at the kitchen counter, defines the transition upward. It culminates in a black volume that leads into the bedroom. The upper level incorporates a concealed bathroom within a mirrored enclosure that both reflects light from the dual windows and amplifies the perception of space.
White-painted original stone walls enhance internal luminosity, contrasted by contemporary dark-colored elements that provide each unit with a distinct identity.
On the exterior, the intervention is signaled by a prominent black volume marking the entrance and newly installed dark shutters on the windows, introducing a subtle yet decisive modern layer to the historic form.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Porto, Portugal
The location specified is intended for general reference and may denote a city or country, but it does not identify a precise address.
