Outside look after the works

A building right in the centre of Constância, built according to the traditional Portuguese architectonic style with strong medieval characteristics - and with the peculiarity of having a barber shop functioning on the ground floor as it was common in the society of the beginning of last century - that was almost ruined and presented several pathologies in the wooden structures as well as in coatings and installations. The present owner contracted us to recover and rehabilitate the building keeping its characteristics and building principles.

After removing the wall plaster, and getting to the structure, we found that the building that initially had only two floors had had a third one added. We saw it by some marks of the previous covering on the present walls. The site conditions, - the pronounced inclination of the ground were the building is situated - can perhaps explain the several levels in the floor of each one of the stories and the narrow passages, almost labyrinthine, through small stairs. The marks of refined finish, elaborate stuccos, carved woods at the bays and mural paintings and marblings, mainly at the spaces under the staircases were numerous although they were severely damaged. But they, nevertheless, showed that the house had belonged to someone important.

Outside look before the works

We started by removing all damaged or rotten wooden structures, including those of the roofs, that had almost collapsed. Later on we removed all existing floor and wall coatings and the electric, water and sewage systems. Keeping all structures that were in good shape namely some partition walls, some wooden ceilings, some artistic paintings. These signs of the past inspired us to carry out the recovering works following the original principles.