- Project: Scaffold House
- Architect: António Costa Lima Arquitectos
- Location: Portugal, Lisbon
- Year: 2023
- Photography: Francisco Nogueira
A Dialogue Between Heritage and Contemporary Design
Scaffold House by António Costa Lima Arquitectos redefines the dialogue between old and new within Lisbon’s historic urban fabric. This sensitive renovation project preserves the essence of a traditional residence while introducing a modern structural extension that enhances light, space, and the home’s connection to its surrounding garden and views.
Balancing architectural heritage with modern intervention, the project reflects a harmonious coexistence of time periods—an elegant choreography between preservation and transformation.
Preserving Identity, Enhancing Experience
The renovation begins with respect for the original dwelling’s defining elements. The main façade and mansard roof, characteristic of Lisbon’s semi-detached typologies, were carefully maintained and restored, honoring the building’s urban identity.
Behind this preserved shell, a new architectural language emerges. A steel-and-glass extension expands the home toward the garden, bringing in natural light and establishing fluid transitions between interior and exterior. This “scaffold” structure, as the architects describe it, acts as both framework and filter—extending the home’s functionality while maintaining visual continuity with the past.
The Concept of Two Architectural Moments
At the heart of the design lies the contrast between two architectural moments:
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The Pre-existing Structure – renewed, preserved, and celebrated for its original character.
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The Contemporary Addition – expressive and transparent, introducing a lightness that opens the home to its landscape.
This duality underscores the project’s conceptual strength. The extension’s structural skeleton defines new exterior spaces—balconies, terraces, and visual corridors—that reinterpret traditional relationships between the house, garden, and city view.
Crafting Continuity Through Material and Light
Inside, the renovation retains much of the existing spatial organization and finishes, carefully updated to meet modern living standards. The restored wood flooring, plastered walls, and ceiling details maintain a sense of domestic intimacy, while large openings in the extension infuse the interiors with daylight.
The material palette—steel, glass, and warm plaster finishes—bridges the gap between historic solidity and contemporary openness. This balance gives Scaffold House its poetic equilibrium: rooted in history, yet reaching toward the future.
A Contemporary Framework for Lisbon’s Architectural Heritage
By preserving key historic elements while introducing a bold structural gesture, Scaffold House becomes a case study in adaptive reuse. It demonstrates how modern architecture can engage meaningfully with heritage—not through imitation, but through contrast and dialogue.
Through its scaffolding-inspired extension, António Costa Lima Arquitectos delivers a thoughtful reinterpretation of Lisbon’s domestic architecture, proving that innovation and preservation can coexist within the same frame.
