Casa Azul: extrastudio's 'Povera House' in Lisbon's Marvila District

In Lisbon's Marvila district, extrastudio has completed Casa Azul, the first of a series of three 'povera houses' conceived during uncertain times. The project rehabilitates and expands a single-story house built in 1893, preserving its original structure while adding a new volume. The clients, Patrícia Dias and Artur Portugal, requested a loft-like open space with an integrated garage for working on cars or motorcycles. Two key architectural gestures define the house: a full-width void on the main facade creating a double-height patio, and a triple-height interior space opening onto the garden. The rear facade features a diagonal cut resulting from a regulatory limitation, allowing a ray of light to penetrate at day's end, reminiscent of Jørn Utzon's Can Lis. Finishes were decided on-site with artisans and clients, including hand-brushed aluminum panels on the ground floor and bare walls covered with gray gypsum plaster, described as 'the color of our time' by Jannis Kounellis. The ultramarine blue exterior, discovered in the preexisting building, was applied as a continuous pigmented lime plaster, requiring each facade to be completed in a single day due to the pigment's instability. The house's design embraces modesty and imperfection as a record of the past, linking to Marvila's industrial heritage.