Hot Shots: AB+AC Architects Designs an Experiential Center for Healing Arts in Lisbon

To the pantheon of architects successfully partnered in both life and business, add newcomers Arianna Bavuso and Andre Chedid. Youthful globetrotters born in Milan and Beirut, respectively, they worked for such firms as Büro Ole Scheeren and Vector Architects in Beijing and Gehl Architects in Copenhagen before opening AB+AC Architects, their own Lisbon, Port­ugal, studio in 2020. The couple’s first major project there—a commission from the nonprofit Open Hearts Lisboa for an experiential center to promote innovation and self-healing through the arts—was truly synergistic. Bavuso teaches neuroachitecture, a budding field that combines neuroscience, psychology, and architecture to explore the interaction between the human brain and the built environment. It moves beyond our intuition that pleasant surroundings generate contentment: “In the long term, beautiful spaces are vehicles for stronger immunity, a feeling of well-being, and even longevity,” Bavuso asserts.

The center rose from the metaphorical ashes of a disused commercial unit, “full of sharp corners that wouldn’t have facilitated the free flow of people or energy,” as Chedid puts it, to become a geography of space in which architecture, connectivity to the community, and access to daylight, clean air, and lush vegetation have positive implications for good health. The sequence starts on the street, where frameless glass doors set in the 19th-century building’s limestone arches provide entry to a large flex room used for such activities as yoga classes and writing workshops. Ecru vegan-leather curtains and bronze-mirror paneling hide storage for demountable tables, floor cushions, and other adaptable equipment. The adjacent birch-clad lounge, glowing under a backlit stretched ceiling, leads to the kitchen and an artist’s residential studio, both with verdant courtyards. The artist’s single white space comprises a sleeping platform facing a soaking tub that sits on a half-moon of handmade terra-cotta floor tiles. It’s a restrained yet sensual mix, deeply imbued with AB+AC’s holistic point of view.

An Exhibition Spotlighting the Creative Prowess of Yves Saint Laurent is on View in Portugal

Talk about staying power. Since early June, some 5,000 visitors have visited the Palace of the Dukes of Cadaval in Évora, Portugal. But they’ve come to see an exhibition relating to Morocco. That’s because it also involves an influential creative force who died in 2008.

“Love–Marrakech Opened My Eyes to Colour: Yves Saint Laurent” offers three different perspectives on the French fashion designer’s passion for the region, in two locations on the palace grounds. One of the sites is the Church of São João Evangelista, a 15th-century edifice with a stunning vaulted ceiling and azulejo tile paneling. Running down what had been the nave is a long platform populated with mannequins donning vintage Saint Laurent Rive Gauche pieces that were inspired by the designer’s first visit to Marrakech in 1966. In the palace proper are additional exhibits: one showcasing the work of 13 contemporary Moroccan artists and another, a collection of Saint Laurent’s annual handmade greeting cards, converted into poster form and featuring the word love.

Studio Astolfi Takes Inspiration from the Seaside Town of Cascais, Portugal for This Restaurant

The charming fishing village of Cascais has long been a destination for travelers escaping Lisbon for the coast of the Portuguese Riviera. Now they have a new place to dine: Chef José Avillez’s Cantinho do Avillez, transformed from a previous restaurant into a homey oasis by Studio Astolfi.

The patio’s existing arcade offered inspiration for the curving transitions between the five niches of the main room, into which the studio set tables and seating. “These hidden alcoves create a feeling of intimacy and coziness,” says founder and creative director, Joana Astolfi. 

At the entrance, the team opened up a double-height space with a staircase leading to the first floor. “We added a more private dining balcony area that allows the passage of light down to the ground floor,” she notes. Custom tapestries and ceramics add a touch of home throughout, united by a color palette warmed by a striking pink tone and a deep blue inspired by the beloved Bay of Cascais nearby. 

Frescoes Inspire This Coworking Space by Studio Pim in Lisbon, Portugal

Coworking spaces require certain amenities: desking, internet, areas devoted to both quiet and socializing. Grupo FAS’s Galerie 218 in the Belém neighborhood of Lisbon has a little bit more. Designed by Studio Pim, the 5,400-square-foot office includes a meeting room, one kitchen, five separate offices, a lounge, a terrace—and, in a second meeting room, a series of striking frescos.

Those existing frescos were an integral inspiration for the design. “We developed the color palette from there, picking out its warm caramels and olive greens,” says interior designer Perrine Velge. “The colors in the rest of the space all took their cue from this original artwork,” informing everything from the custom upholstery on rattan chairs to the cushions and rugs.

The Fresco Room offers another feature in the form of a monumental bespoke table, some 15 feet long. “It was made by a local carpenter who picked out each plank individually,” Velge says. “The love of timber visible in his work was beautiful to behold.” And surely will inspire more work from its users at Galerie 218.

This Co-Working Space in Portugal by Covo Interiores is Ideal for Heads-Down Work

Sometimes, the appeal of a co-working space can be found in its hubbub, the visual and audio noise of colleagues completing their tasks all around you. The MGS offices in Viseu, Portugal, offers something entirely different: a calm, rational space in which to really focus.

“The offices were designed to join various companies, combining synergies from different businesses including real estate,” says José Morgado of Covo Interiores, who designed the space with fellow firm co-founder Mário Morgado. To keep everything organized, the team conceived a system of vaults and arches to define workstations and passageways. To keep it peaceful, they focused on a simple color scheme. “The tranquility and simplicity of the predominately white color,” Morgado says, “enhanced by the contrast of the dark work desks and the green of the gardens surrounding the building, provide a sense of well-being.” And that’s what a workspace should offer, above all. 

Viterbo Interior Design Revives Hotel Albatroz in Cascais, Portugal

Hotel Albatroz has been centuries in the making. The boutique seaside property in Cascais, Portugal, started out in the early 1900s as a grand residence built for the Lancastre family, its architecture a blend of Italian, Moorish, neo-Gothic, and neo-Manueline styles. In the 1940s it was converted into an inn, hosting such bold names as Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, and Rudolf Nureyev as they vacationed on what’s called the Portuguese Riviera. The 51-key hotel was expanded and redesigned in the 1980s by Viterbo Interior Design, then headed by Graça Viterbo. Now it has just unveiled its latest renovation, and it’s by Gracinha Viterbo, the firm partner and creative director and Graca’s daughter. “I have recollections of coming here with my mother when I was very young,” she says, “which has helped me bridge the project’s past and present.” That translates to preserving such original details as the hand-carved banisters and pairing them with new yet historically inspired elements like the bar’s mirrors that nod to Portuguese wicker baskets and striking cerulean tilework. Adds Viterbo: “There are blue hues for days.”

Made in Situ Collection Pays Tribute to Cork

When I witnessed Portugal’s devastating fires in 2017, I learned that the sombreiro, or cork oak tree, is surprisingly resistant,” says French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, who moved to Lisbon the summer after. “That triggered the idea for the Burnt Cork collection.” Conceived for his own design brand, Made in Situ, the collection of three tables, two chairs, a stool, and a chaise longue pays tribute to the usually scuppered material. Blackened bark tissue harvested from burnt forests is transformed into agglomerated blocks with a subtle gradient of color and granule size—from large charcoal-laden cork pieces at the bottom to finer tan granules on top—then CNC-carved into sculptural furniture replete with Duchaufour-Lawrance’s characteristic fluid lines.