Long and far goes the golden time of the Oporto’s industrial era during the so called 1st Modernity and with it the deurbanization of some parts of the city. It’s legacy has invariably been the malfunction or inadaptation of the big industrial buildings and so they are left to its own tragic fate… This shrinking “rusty” areas are real urban and architectural lab’s waiting for a new life. This fact sets on track a real opportunity to experiment and to explore new topologies and forms of living that only this kind of space can render.
courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
Right at the heart of Oporto’s Oriental Neibourghood (Bairro Oriental), the most economicaly and socialy depressed part of the city, the project gives a new hope for a couple of coal warehouses. The objective of Loft Miraflor (LMF) is to rehabilitate and refunction the- centenary warehouses for dwelling purposes.
The project takes in account some specific particularities of this, long, narrow and double heighted building where everything can happen. Without changing its morpho-tipology, the idea is to “simply” hang-up 6 wooden boxes in between the roof trusses in order to maximize the area for social interaction on the ground floor.
courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
On the ground floor, the 31m long warehouse is colonized by the social areas like living-room, kitchen, dinning-room and, at the end, a patio. These functional areas naturally share the open plan of the loft in a way that they continuously succeed each other with no phisical barriers.
courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
On the wooden mezzanines, up on the air and hovering over the social areas, are located the private areas allowing the zenital light to come down to the social areas due to the voids in between them. This also enables the vertical comunication with the first floor which is asured by three elicoidal stairs that conects the rooms to the first floor. Each room has its own private wc and window on the roof.
courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
+ Project facts
Colophon
LMF Loft Miraflor (Construction Phase)
Architecture: Alexandre Loureiro
Engineering: SOPSEC
Total Area: 318m2
Year: 2013
Renders: Rui Quaresma
+ All images and drawings courtesy Alexandre Loureiro
