The Cabedelo Apartment was born from a rare challenge: to give identity, character and freedom to an originally anonymous dwelling in a seaside building. The opportunity lay in an unexpected asset, an exterior area larger than the interior, which became the driving force for reorganising the entire domestic experience.
The studio redesigned flows, circulation and functions, recentring the social area as the heart of the home and extending it, almost without boundaries, into a large outdoor space designed for living, cooking, gathering and simply enjoying time.
Through marble, porcelain, refined plasterwork and the softness of natural light, the house gains a new expression: more fluid, more open, more intimate.
The timber deck, leisure areas, outdoor bathing spaces and multiple living zones create a sense of permanent holiday living, where the interior stretches towards the sky. The result is a home that blends comfort, aesthetics and a rare architectural freedom.
There are commissions that are hard to interpret, and even harder to bring to life. Sometimes because they are bound to domestic routines, other times because they long for all that is extraordinary.
In this case, everything unfolds within an anonymous building, in an apartment that adds little in terms of heritage or experiential quality, merely replicating a familiar housing formula found in so many seaside suburbs, yet demanding a different approach and way of inhabiting. The key lies in the fact that its exterior space exceeds the interior, offering extraordinary architectural potential.
The guiding principle was to reorganize the home as a whole: rationalizing functions, streamlining circulation, maximizing space, and enhancing the dialogue between indoors and outdoors. The aim was to elevate both the lived and the social dimensions of the dwelling, while also refining the private and intimate ones.
Recentering the so-called social zone, unfolding it into an interior and an exterior component, extending its perception, appropriation, and use to all who live in or visit the apartment, blurring boundaries, encouraging fluidity, and creating the openness typical of summer living, this was the path taken to reach the final solution.
To transform and transfigure: giving the home an interior sophistication that overcomes its initially underdeveloped layout, and granting it an exterior space that, for some, is a garden, and for others, pure leisure. In this case, it becomes both a dwelling and a way of living.
Inside, the living, dining, and kitchen areas were set as the core of the home, directly connected to the sleeping quarters and to a generous outdoor extension meant for the same purposes: living, dining, and cooking. Materials were carefully chosen, marble and porcelain, plaster and drywall, raised flooring and, in certain moments, carpet, balanced to create the intended atmosphere.
The outdoor area was filled with spaces for relaxation and leisure framed by wooden decking, areas for bathing and lounging, social gatherings and conviviality. The intervention was divided into approximately 160 m² of interior space, 100 m² of covered exterior space, and 200 m² of open-air exterior space, weaving together a harmonious relationship between inside and out, comprising three bedrooms and a variety of living, circulation, and leisure areas.
It is a space that speaks of comfort while being elevated by aesthetics, a unique environment shaped by natural light and carefully designed artificial lighting, offering occasions for rest, for bathing, for extending the home outwards, or simply gazing at the endless blue sky. In other words, a dwelling and a space born of both reality and dream, a fulfillment that only its inhabitants can truly describe and feel.
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Project name: Apartamento Cabedelo
Architecture Office: Ricardo Azevedo Arquitecto
Main Architect: Ricardo Silva Azevedo
Collaboration: Rute Castro, Ana Machado
Light design, visual identity, illustrations: Ricardo Azevedo Arquitecto
Interior Design: AAR Déco
Location: Cabedelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal
Year of conclusion: 2025
Total area: 460 m²
Architectural Photographer: Ivo Tavares Studio
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