Aurora Arquitectos draws attention to additions and "ruptures" in Lisbon apartment
Aurora Arquitectos knocked through walls to create a large living room in this old Lisbon apartment, and inserted a wall with curving edges to form a pair of bedrooms (+ slideshow).
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_9.jpg)
The Lisbon studio wanted to use noticeably different materials to highlight "ruptures" to the original design of the apartment, which is located near Lisbon's Estrela Basilica.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_10.jpg)
Wooden frames and slim brass flooring plates outline new openings in the living space. Similarly, a wall separating two bedrooms has curving edges to highlight it as a new addition.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_15.jpg)
"The intervention done in the Apartment in Estrela reveals its own renovation logic, making the time-based and formal ruptures explicit," said the architects.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_14.jpg)
New storage spaces also feature curving edges to differentiate them from the linearity of the original space.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_12.jpg)
But Aurora Arquitectos also retained many of the original features, including wooden floors that run throughout, kitchen tiles, door trims, and wall and ceiling mouldings.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_43.jpg)
The southern side of the apartment – comprising the kitchen, utility spaces and a third bedroom – remains largely untouched, but features a few new furniture elements.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_42.jpg)
New cabinets are fitted around a pink marble arch in the kitchen, which also features blue and white tiled walls. This space opens out to a terrace.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_22.jpg)
The bulk of the alternations are confined to the rooms on the northern side of the property.
Here, walls were removed between three bedrooms to create a single living space, and a former lounge and study was converted into a pair of bedrooms with a walk-in wardrobe.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_31.jpg)
Tiny gaps are left around the edges of the new wall separating the bedrooms, allowing original decorative panelling to continue seamlessly between the rooms.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_38.jpg)
A white curtain drapes the storage unit that runs along one wall of the walk-in wardrobe adjoining the end bedroom.
Street-facing windows and glazing above the arched entrance bring light into the small triangular room.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_34.jpg)
"What could be easily understood as an act of uniting and separating becomes one of the project's main themes – reversibility," said the team, explaining that they wanted to ensure the works could be reversed at a later date.
"The space issue becomes a time-related concern. Now we have come to accept that renovation is part of an ongoing process of change and constant revising of its own validity."
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_936_46.jpg)
"It is, then, from the constant dialogue between the previous elements and the new ones, that the creation of unexpected possibilities emerges," they added.
"A kind of palimpsest as a way of rethinking and challenging the pre-established functions and relationships, from dwellers to architecture itself."
Photography is by Do Mal o Menos.
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_floor-plan_1.gif)
![Apartment in Estrela by Aurora Arquitectos](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2016/08/apartment-in-estrela-aurora-arquitectos-interiors_dezeen_original-floor-plan_1.gif)