Confronting the limitations of a deep apartment with a single sun-facing façade, the renovation introduces a linear spatial organization that maximizes access to daylight while bringing brightness to interior zones through retro-illuminated ceilings. Anchored by a kitchen defined by a stone island and stainless-steel elements, the project combines material authenticity, craftsmanship, and spatial clarity to transform a fragmented 1980s layout into a luminous and enduring domestic environment.
XXXI.studio unveils São Bento, a Lisbon apartment renovation that replaces a fragmented 1980’s layout with a design driven by clarity, light, and structural purpose.
Navigating the constraints of a deep, single-facade floor plan, the renovation focuses on a radical re-ordering of space to create a vivid domestic atmosphere.
By re-engineering the structural flow of the residence, the studio has transformed an once-dark interior into a domestic sanctuary where material honesty and a balanced interplay of light, air, and materiality define the everyday experience of the home.
Faced with an apartment possessing only a single sun-facing facade, XXXI.studio completely re-ordered the space into “two stripes”.
By placing all primary rooms in a linear sequence along the courtyard, every living space now benefits from direct contact with natural light. To resolve the darkness of the interior service areas, the studio developed retro-illuminated ceilings that simulate the sensation of an open sky, ensuring a vivid and happy energy permeates even the deepest corners of the home.
At the heart of the residence lies a kitchen conceived as the project’s central protagonist.
The clients are a couple for whom the studio was simultaneously designing a restaurant, which meant a strong previous relationship already existed. Because of their deep connection to the culinary world, the studio treated the kitchen as the central architectural object. The space is anchored by a stone island and stainless steel elements — materials selected for their timeless technical capacity and proven endurance over time.
“I believe we live in a civilisational moment where ‘truth’ is becoming less and less real,” says Carlos Aragão, co-founder of XXXI.studio. The project serves as an enduring reminder of the studio’s guiding principle: out of true comes beauty.
“The beauty of a decision lies in its truth. The blue of the stone is blue because that is the reality of the material coming from the earth; it hasn’t been transformed for a market reason. Beauty is found in solutions that are honest because you can see exactly what they are.”
São Bento stands as an intentional anomaly in a design world increasingly dominated by “fake environments”.
By managing both the design and construction phases, XXXI.studio has delivered a home built on materials that last and speak to the inherent and unquestionable quality of their origins.
By rejecting the superficial and celebrating the raw essence of craftsmanship, XXXI.studio has curated an atmosphere where the truth of the material is not just a technical choice, but an emotional one.
Facts & Credits
Project title: São Bento
Architecture: XXXI.studio
Project type: Interiors | Residential
Project location: Lisbon, Portugal
Year of completion: 2025
Text: Georgie Flores-Laird
Design Team: Carlos Aragão João Romão Ruben Silva Hugo Maia
Constuction Team: Carlos Aragão João Romão Ruben Silva Construction
Photography: Francisco Nogueira