Portugal . 2014
Client: Nazayork, lda
Design of low-budget custom-made furniture and interior renovation of a hostel in the Portuguese coast town of Nazaré. Inspired by the traditional wood huts typical of the local beaches and developed to be hand built directly by the client.
Just like the huts, that are made to be assembled before the summer to be dismantled at the end of the high season, the furniture uses a similar construction technique, where the structural stability is given by the composition more than by permanent joints.
The furniture design was approached exactly as a DIY project. All wood has been purchased pre-cut according to the components drawings, where all trims are planned linear to make sure they don’t affect the final cost of the piece. Perforation and assembling schemes were provided to the client, together with a list of the needed hardware, to complete construction directly on site.
To minimize the production cost, each furniture is conceived only using standard 50x50mm pine profiles, 10mm plywood sheets and 9mm black Viroc panels, joint together just using a basic screw-and-bolt system.
The result is a contemporary collection of pieces, fit for a youth-oriented hostel located in one of the hottest surfing spot in Europe. Each room is furnished, according to its typology, with bunk beds, twin beds and a clothes wall-hanger; combined with locally found reclaimed furniture.
Inspired the local history, each unit is decorated with a hand drawn illustration (artwork by Rita Lourenço), honoring the fishing tradition of Nazaré.
The same language is carried throughout the entire hostel, from the rooms to the common areas such as the lounge, the dining room and the kitchen.
Since the hostel develops in three different apartments, each with different finishing, every existing architectural feature, such as plasters, tiles, frames and details, was covered with a white paint coat. This allows to create a blank canvas on which the new elements are inserted, creating a strong contrast between the white of the existing and the wood and the black of the intervention.
Some of the existing outdated furniture was also reclaimed, always trying to create a clear dialog between all the actors, such as one of the kitchen that was transformed in the hostel’s bar, where the cabinets were painted in chalk paint and new plywood components were inserted.
Second hand vintage furniture, all locally purchased, was used to complete the interior decoration and to balance the strong language of the custom made elements.
KUVA 