Morro apartment was completed by Hinterland Architecture Studio in Porto, Portugal, in 2019.

Hinterland Architecture Studio is based in Porto, Portugal, and led by Filipa Figueira and Tiago Vieira. Although they've been working for some years, they kind of consider this their "first" project.

The original small apartment part of a 60s affordable housing building, was divided into minimum spaces, articulated by the entrance hall and a small corridor.

The existing space was only 60sqm.

The aim of the project was to maximise the living space of the house, stripping the space to the bare minimum and reorganising the plan

‘This was the first built project where the only constraint from the client was the budget. This give us the chance to try some things that a lot of clients wouldn't have dared to try’

During the first demolitions, the architects felt that there would be constraints with the old building infrastructures and it would be impossible to change the kitchen and bathroom location.

With budget constraints the strategy was to demolish partition walls, change damaged windows and introduce thermal insulation to the exterior walls.

The project keeps the original bedrooms and bathroom location while the entrance hall, kitchen, living room and sunroom are merged to a single space

This operation provides sunlight to the whole apartment.

Since the first site visit, the architects knew that the existing floor would be an important visual element, it was recovered and completed while the walls and ceiling were painted in full white.

The woodwork is designed as new contemporary elements, built in coloured wood fibre panels and applied as ready-made objects in the existing space.