Located in Braga, Portugal, Three Cusps Chalet is a 120-year building of 165m² (1,776ft²), refurbished by Tiago do Vale Arquitectos in 2013. Initially conceived as an annex serving the small palace by its side, now the renovated building serves as a work studio and a home. The architects have restored the façade to its original glory, reinstating the original wooden window frames and preserving the decorated eave.
The building’s identity had been lost in 120 years of small unqualified interventions, over-compartmenting it, closing it to the street and to the light.
Its façade was equally adulterated: modern aluminum window frames and exterior shade head boxes changed the openings’ stereotomy, the building’s scale and detail, and disrupted the original sense of the street.
So, the goal of this design was to clarify the building’s spaces and functions, returning it to its original image, constructive techniques and (mainly habitational) program, while simultaneously making it fit for today’s way of living, giving it back to the city and potentially constituting a model for future rehabilitation projects in the neighbourhood.
—Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
The dwelling before the renovation:
Drawings:
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Photographs by João Morgado
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