“For me, this was an opportunity to do things differently, to experiment,” says architect Rui Dinis about the former workers’ home he bought in 2017 near Covelo Park, on the edge of central Porto, in Portugal.

The 344-square-foot house had originally formed part of a project known as urban islands, which were a common type of housing in the city from the 19th century onward. They were composed of small, semidetached houses, usually with a door and a window facing the access corridor. In the 1970s, the Portuguese government set about demolishing the urban islands and relocating their inhabitants to neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. While many were destroyed, some urban islands still remain “as part of the city’s memory,” says Rui.

“The house I bought could best be described as a ruin; I suspect it had been abandoned for about fifteen years,” admits the architect, who had initially intended to rent it out as a tourist apartment. Having completed the renovation in 2019, Rui ultimately sold the property in 2020, after the pandemic put paid to his Airbnb plans.

Before: Entry

After: Entry

Due to the limited space, the side of the kitchen counter—made from medium-density fiberboard (MDF) from Valchromat and maintained in its original green color—was converted into the first five steps of the staircase. The second section of the staircase was made from 0.3-inch black sheet steel. It weighs half a ton, and Rui was surprised the wall was able to handle it. “We enjoyed working with the light and contrasts,” says Rui, adding: “Going upstairs at one point it’s like being in a black tunnel, until you start to reach the top and see the light flooding in through the bedroom windows.”

Rui and his colleagues tried to stay true to the materials typically used in traditional Porto houses, like the pinewood floors, a feature found in many of the city’s homes from the 19th century. As for the ceiling, the plan had been to maintain the original wooden beams but they were too badly damaged, so he installed new Riga Wood beams instead.

Meanwhile, Italian Carrara marble was used for the kitchen counter and the top of the TV stand. The window shutters are made from the same MDF material as the kitchen counter, reflecting the green color scheme found throughout the house.

Before: Outdoor Toilet

After: Outdoor Storage

Rui, who is a partner in the Porto-based architecture firm Spaceworkers, says he is used to working on huge projects. For him, restoring this ultra-small-scale house was an opportunity to do “something completely different,” getting into the tiny details to maximize the space, but without the constraints of designing for a client.

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

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Before: Dining Area

After: Living/Dining Area

The exposed brick walls in the original house had been covered in tiles and plaster. Rui admits that he expected the bricks to be “more beautiful than they were.”

He added concrete between the bricks to reinforce the wall and then painted them white to make the space appear brighter and more spacious. “The house has very small windows, so we took every opportunity to add more light where we could,” explains Rui, adding that he did not change any major structural details as this would have required a license and delayed the restoration. “Instead of creating a contemporary exterior, I wanted to maintain the integrity of the original house from the outside, and give people a surprise when they opened the door!”

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

The staircase now leads to a bright upper floor that has been converted into one large primary bedroom with two windows and an en suite bathroom cleverly camouflaged as a mirrored enclosure.

Rui is especially proud of how he and the team optimized the space and the light to define this area: “The staircase leads us from the dark into the light,” he explains. “It transports us from the public space downstairs to the private space—the bedroom and bathroom—upstairs.”

More Before & After stories:

In Mérida, a Blocky ’80s Home Turns Over a New Leaf

In Buenos Aires, a Crumbling Home Gets a Major Refresh With a Rooftop Pool

In Nuremberg, a Cramped and Kitschy Flat Gets a Pastel Refresh

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Spaceworkers / @spaceworkers

Interior Design: Bairro

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Before & After: In Porto, a Tiny Home Emerges From Ruins