Matilde Girão and Ricardo Lima had recently moved into their new apartment when they ran into a couple of architects who had been their professors in college. Matilde and Ricardo, now architects themselves, quickly learned that their professors were actually neighbors in the condominium where they had just renovated a flat for their own family. It was a pleasant surprise, but more than just a chance encounter.

The Nova Oeiras development in Lisbon where they all live has long attracted fans of architecture, whether visiting design students or architects like Matilde and Ricardo or their professors. Designed by Luís Cristino da Silva, Pedro Falcão e Cunha, and Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles and built between 1953 and the early 1970s, the development is a lasting model for housing density and urban modernism in the Portuguese capital: a series of towers and low-set blocks intertwined with luscious parks that form a roundabout, with a shopping center at its core.

For this reason, Matilde and Ricardo, directors of their firm, Girão Lima Arquitectos, bought a unit in a tower built in 1968 to renovate for themselves and their now nine-year-old twins. The roughly 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom flat is on the fifth level, at “the perfect height to watch birds from the balcony,” Matilde enthusiastically points out. The couple is responsible for larger works like the Rehearsal Hall for the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the renovation of the former AEM warehouse in Massagno, Switzerland, and a primary school in Bitonto, Puglia, currently under construction. But now they faced a “relatively simple and straightforward renovation” on a strict budget, explains Ricardo.

The apartment had seen updates over the years, but instead of returning it to its original layout, which would have taken too much time and strained Matilde and Ricardo’s finances, they envisioned spaces that supported flexibility for their family. A pantry off a central hallway was transformed into a laundry room that now connects with the kitchen. The apartment had a maid’s bedroom, common at the time it was built, that was adjacent to another bedroom. Matilde and Ricardo joined the two, creating a shared, open play area and a wall-to-wall birch plywood built-in that forms mirrored bedrooms, each with deep storage units. The windows in the primary bedroom and the kids’ play area were enlarged; the parents say they leave the curtain open for the kids at night, wanting the view to be a part of their relationship with the home.

Ricardo and Matilde wanted a continuous floor, even in the kitchen and the bathroom. So they took out the laminate wood floors, which weren’t original and were damaged, and replaced them with a matte-white pool tile. They say it was a risky choice—the material could’ve turned out too cold and industrial-looking—but they felt it spoke to the retro spirit of the apartment. The tile also came in different formats, providing some flexibility. Curved pieces at the base of the kitchen and bathroom walls soften corners and make rooms easier to clean. “And it visually extends the plan. Everything seems ampler,” says Ricardo.

The kitchen has a dramatic plywood built-in, too. It provides storage and frames two doorways side by side: one to a hallway that connects with the home’s entrance, and another to the laundry room. “Rather than reducing usable area, these interventions enhance spatial flow, visual order, and organization, allowing the apartment to feel both more spacious and more intentional in its design,” says Ricardo.

Matilde and Ricardo designed furniture for the apartment as well, like a table for the balcony off the living area. They went to a quarry and sourced a piece of discarded Verde Viana, which was popular in the ’60s and ’70s. (They used the same kind in the apartment’s two bathrooms.) To envision its shape, the whole family laid out plates and glasses on the balcony, drawing an outline that could adapt to different seating positions. The result is a wavy top with a leg structure that can be set at two different heights, providing flexibility for the family and while hosting. It’s subtle, but adds to the home’s carefree ambiance. “We feel like we live in a holiday home,” says Matilde.

In renovating their apartment, Matilde and Ricardo focused on how to boost the experience of spaces with interventions that accommodate their current way of life, but also provide flexibility for the future. “Flexibility is less about movable elements and more about allowing the areas to be used in multiple ways, depending on routine and evolving needs,” says Ricardo. “In this sense, the project is a metaphor of our family’s daily life— constantly evolving and adapting in a simple and natural way.”

Related Reading:

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A Noise Complaint and a Bottle of Champagne Sparked This Small Madrid Apartment’s Transformation

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Girão Lima Arquitectos / @giraolima.arquitectos

Builder/General Contractor: High Contrast / @highcontrast.pt

Lighting and Interior Design: Girão Lima Arquitectos

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Plywood Built-Ins Reframe a Family’s Flat at a Revered Modernist Development in Lisbon