Casa Luísa Varela

Casa Luísa Varela - Rua da Liberdade 75 - is one of the "50 Modernst houses/apartments with a shop in the Rua da Liberdade designed by architect Manuel Gomes da Costa (1921-2016) in 1955.

On a narrow pentagonal plot of 72 m2, with a chapel on the right and an alley on the left, you find this building, commissioned by Luisa da Conceição Valera. It is only 5.30 m. width at the front and is 16.50 m long, with its facade to Rua da Liberdade.

It contains a shop on the ground floor (showcase, building, warehouse and toilet) and on the top floor a house with two bedrooms located at the back side of the plot. It also has two patios to let in natural light into the rooms. And it has a kitchen, bathroom and dining room in the front. The living room continues outside through the balcony that balances above the sloping street and occupies a strip of it. There is also a corridor and a vestibule leading to an innovative staircase in which the steps are slightly twisted to the surrounding walls.

This was the first house on Rua da Liberdade to abandon the usual sloping tiled roof and optioned for a flat roof with a terrace. Although the house is inhabited and in acceptable condition, the front has recently been altered and redecorated to the dis-taste of the day. For example, the subtle decorations has now been covered and the original ironwork has been replaced by welded metal profiles and filled in with rough and pronounced woodwork.