Rosa

Rosa — the project name set across the hero photograph; below, the open-plan living room with contemporary fireplace, dark granite kitchen, saddle-tan leather barstools and pale oak floor

The walls came down inside.
The step came down outside.

A ground-floor T2 in Cascais — an old Portuguese-style apartment with a lot of potential under the dated finishes and heavy wooden furniture, and a patio nobody used. The step down to it was a trip hazard. The footprint was too narrow to host anything.

Inside, structural walls were removed to wrap the entire living space around a central, contemporary fireplace. The barrier between bedroom and bath dissolved behind glass.

Outside, the apartment doubled. The patio was completely rebuilt — raised to level access, the footprint extended, and the bedroom windows swapped for full sliding doors that pull the room straight onto the tile. A pergola, a barbecue station, and 70 square metres of life the family never had. This is the studio’s case study for what happens when an apartment’s floorplan doesn’t stop at the exterior wall.

Further reading: full-home renovation →

— Before · Dated inside, dangerous outside

Rosa before — original living room, heavy wooden furniture and dated finishes — Living room

Rosa before — original kitchen, dated finishes — Kitchen

Rosa before — original bathroom, dated tile — Bathroom

Rosa before — original balcony, narrow footprint and the trip-step down from the apartment — Balcony

— During · What was under the tile

Rosa during — the original patio tile and trip-step coming up, new cement strips forming the level base for the extended footprint — *The old tile out, the trip-step gone with it.*

Rosa during — pulling back a section of the old patio floor reveals rotten material underneath, no waterproofing membrane between the tile and the building structure, decades of leak damage exposed — *Under the old tile: no waterproofing, decades of leak.*

Rosa during — original tiles fully stripped and stacked at the perimeter, the exposed substrate ready for waterproofing — *Every tile up, ready for waterproofing.*

Rosa during — the rebuilt patio sub-floor in smooth cement screed, waterproofing membrane sealed against the perimeter walls, drainage conduits routed at the base — *The barrier that should have been here forty years ago.*

Rosa during — new structural substructure being built up over the waterproofed slab, raising the patio floor to the apartment level so there is no step down — *Building the patio up to the apartment level.*

Rosa during — wood-effect floor tiles arriving on site in their packaging, staged against the new substructure, ready to be installed — *Wood-effect tile arriving on site.*

“A floorplan doesn’t stop at the exterior wall.”

Dropping the trip-step and extending the patio didn’t just build an outdoor space. It doubled the living room.
— Maja Milič

— After · Everything faces the fire

— The numbers

By the metric.

Duration: 10 months
Space: 116 m² + 70 m² terrace

— Materials & finishes

What got used.

Living centreContemporary fireplace
Kitchen islandDark granite, stovetop integrated
Kitchen cabinetryMatte charcoal, no hardware visible
Kitchen seatingSaddle-tan leather barstools
FloorsPale oak, throughout
BedroomMid-grey bedhead, full sliding doors to the patio
BathroomGold tub behind glass, wood-effect tile
Patio (70 m²)Footprint extended, level access, wood-effect tile, pergola, BBQ station

— Your home, next

Yours might need both doors opened.

The studio is good at finding what needs to come down.

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The walls came down inside.The step came down outside.

By the metric.

What got used.

Yours might need both doors opened.

The walls came down inside.
The step came down outside.