Inside a pink 1930s building in Porto, FMVS encounters an apartment whose proportions had become its principal difficulty: excessively long, heavily compartmentalised and threaded together by corridors that consumed both space and light. Rather than correcting this condition, the Portuguese practice responds with a series of precise, almost playful gestures, reorganising domestic life around light, timber and a collection of curious wooden follies.
In Porto’s Bonfim district, the residential fabric reflects the city’s transformation during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when industrial growth and urban expansion progressively reshaped the eastern part of the city. Narrow streets, deep plots and buildings organised around internal courtyards form part of this urban character, creating domestic interiors in which the relationship between street, dwelling and open-air spaces remains particularly important. It is within this context that FMVS reworks a 1930s apartment on Rua de Rodolfo Araújo.
The intervention concentrates on the apartment’s shared spaces. A new entrance hall establishes a moment of arrival; the kitchen is repositioned towards the courtyard; and, at the centre of the plan, a semi-transparent timber screen mediates the passage towards the living room.
Neither quite wall nor piece of furniture, it filters rather than separates, allowing light and glimpses to travel through the apartment and quietly pulling the gaze towards the outside.
The previously elongated sequence becomes less a corridor than a succession of thresholds.
Wood is the project’s recurring material and narrative device.
Its presence recalls the importance of woodwork and craftsmanship within Porto’s historic domestic interiors, connecting the contemporary intervention with a broader local material tradition. Appearing in different tones, grains and applications, it lends warmth and density to the existing interior while establishing a subtle dialogue with the imagery of the building’s original period. Yet FMVS avoids turning this relationship into nostalgia.
Τimber becomes a contemporary layer through which the apartment’s history can be read, inhabited and gently altered.
Throughout the house, small wooden constructions appear almost like architectural characters. These “follies” become furniture, negotiate awkward corners and resolve situations that might otherwise have demanded heavier architectural interventions.
Their scale makes them simultaneously useful and slightly enigmatic: miniature architectures embedded within the larger domestic one.
The same logic extends into the courtyard, where timber elements and abundant planting transform the grey rear façade into a more intimate landscape.
There is something revealing here about FMVS’s broader way of working. In response to the visual and informational overstimulation of contemporary life, the Porto-based practice searches instead for what it describes as “perceptual solidity”—architecture capable of offering stability and comfort while rewarding prolonged attention. Its buildings are not conceived to disclose themselves immediately. Details, materials and small peculiarities accumulate slowly, inviting the eye to linger.
This attitude also informs the studio’s understanding of sustainability. Longevity is approached not only as a technical question, but as an architectural and perceptual one: buildings endure when materials are carefully chosen, construction is thoughtfully resolved and spaces remain meaningful enough to deserve continued care. Here, the modest palette and restrained intervention suggest that transformation does not necessarily require abundance.
Perhaps the apartment’s most distinctive quality therefore lies in its attention to the apparently minor.
FMVS describes its practice as selectively attentive to the customs, chances and peculiarities already embedded within a place. In Porto, these become the substance of the project. An inconvenient proportion becomes a spatial sequence; an awkward corner invites a piece of furniture; a grey courtyard becomes a garden; and wood repeatedly slips between walling and object.
The result is a renovation that feels both measured and mischievous.
Rather than imposing a singular gesture upon the 1930s apartment, FMVS constructs a domestic world through a collection of small encounters—screens, thresholds, furniture, plants and follies—suggesting that sometimes architecture becomes most present precisely when it chooses to intervene with less.
About the pratice
FMVS is a team of architects committed to a relevant and sensitive practice. Aware of the over-stimulation that characterises contemporary life, we look to design buildings with perceptual solidity that offer stability and comfort for everyday activities.
‘’We are fascinated by architecture that invites lengthy observation, capable of drawing our eyes towards its subtle presence, the care of its details, or its enigmatic character. We believe that this resilience, along with a careful choice of materials and suitable technical solutions, is key to the longevity of a building and, therefore, to its sustainability. Our approach to each project is to give a precise response to the specifics of each brief and to the critical interpretation of the contexts in which they find themselves, particularly through a selective awareness of small customs, chances, and peculiarities that should be enhanced.’’
Facts & Credits
Project title Apartamento em Rodolfo Araújo
Typology Interior, Residential
Location Porto, Portugal
Status Completed, 2024
Architecture FMVS
Design team Vânia Saraiva, Filipe Madeira, Bernardo Alves
Photography Frederico Martinho