Manchester Building
This 20th century building is located in the Lisbon neighbourhood of Anjos.
It had been in a state of imminent ruin, although 3 of its 10 apartments were inhabited. Continuing, today, to maintain these original residents.
The rehabilitation operation was structural and transversal – with the necessary reinforcements from a structural point of view, all kinds of new infrastructures and systems to improve the energy performance and comfort of the apartments.
The main façade and the stairwell were restored, with a redesign of the entrance hall, the circulation areas in the basement floor and the patio, and the roof was reconstructed. An elevator was installed towards the rear of the building, the metallic structure of the balconies was extended leading to an increase of the private outdoor area, a new entrance to the apartments and access to the patio.
All the apartments underwent the same spatial alterations, despite having been personalised according to the wishes of each of their new owners.
Although this is clearly and unmistakably a rehabilitation, a commitment was made to preservation - of the constructive principles, materials, apartment typology, and its inhabitants - valuing, through non-demolition, the set of resources already invested in the pre-existence, and the possibility of renewal establishing lines of continuity.
Conservation and restoration choices have not always depended on heritage value, but on the desire to qualify and celebrate the unique characteristics of a particular type of architecture, in an intermingling of the new and old that is not always distinguishable.
