IAI Coletivo Carves a 30 m² Studio out of a 1980s Commercial Gallery in Porto

Thirty square meters is not much to work with. It is roughly the footprint of a single-car garage, the kind of space most architects would dismiss as too tight for anything beyond storage. Yet IAI Coletivo, led by Carlos Ferreira, has turned precisely this constraint into the governing logic of their own atelier in Vila das Aves, a small urban center in the municipality of Santo Tirso, Porto. The space sits inside the commercial gallery of a 1980s building, elevated above street level and accessed through an exterior walkway that wraps the structure. It is both hidden and highly connected, a condition the studio exploits with surgical precision.

What makes this project worth examining is not ambition but discipline. The intervention is almost entirely reversible: a steel ceiling grid, a pair of opaque partition planes, white resin flooring, and a shelving system that doubles as archive and display. No demolition, no heavy infrastructure, no permanent fixtures that would outlast the studio's own evolving needs. The result is an interior that reads simultaneously as workshop, photography studio, gallery, and meeting room, shifting identity depending on who is using it and what is pinned to the walls. It is a project about time as much as space.

Steel Grid as Architectural Scaffold

The exposed steel ceiling grid is the single most defining element of the atelier. It operates structurally (supporting lighting and translucent panels) and visually (imposing a legible order on the compact plan). The grid turns the ceiling into a datum that organizes everything below it without touching the walls, preserving the sense that the interior is a lightweight insertion rather than a permanent refit. Shadows cast by the steel members shift throughout the day, giving the room a kinetic quality that belies its small footprint.

There is a productive tension between the industrial character of the grid and the soft, almost gallery-like quality of the walls and floor beneath it. The white resin surface reflects light upward, amplifying daylight and making the steel read as darker, more graphic. It is a deliberate contrast: the skeleton is legible, the flesh is neutral.

Two Planes, Many Rooms

The interior is organized around two freestanding opaque planes, curved and angled to subdivide the rectangle without actually closing it. One plane anchors a meeting and socializing zone; the other carves out a multi-use work area that can function as a photography studio, a model-making bench, or an open floor for layout reviews. Neither plane touches the ceiling or the perimeter walls. They float within the room, and you can always see around or over them, which keeps the 30 m² from feeling partitioned into claustrophobic cells.

The oval translucent screen, mounted on a steel frame, is a particularly smart move. It diffuses light while providing a visual break, and its curved geometry introduces a softness that counters the orthogonal grid overhead. When strong morning sunlight hits it, the screen becomes a glowing surface that projects elongated shadows across the floor, effectively turning structure into ornament without adding anything decorative.

Light as the Primary Material

The atelier's elevated position above street level is not just a quirk of the existing building; it is the project's most valuable asset. Continuous windows along one wall and clerestory openings flood the space with natural light that changes character throughout the day. In the afternoon, low-angle sun penetrates deep into the room, casting long parallel shadows through the steel grid and the glass partitions. In the morning, the light is softer, diffused by the translucent ceiling panels.

IAI Coletivo treats this daylight not as an amenity but as a design material. The white surfaces, the reflective resin floor, the translucent screens: every surface choice amplifies or modulates natural light. There is no artificial lighting scheme competing for attention in any of the photographs, which says something about the confidence of the daylighting strategy.

The Storefront Threshold

From the street, the atelier reads through a storefront window framed by pink ceramic tiles, a remnant of the 1980s commercial gallery that IAI Coletivo wisely chose to keep. The pink tile surround gives the facade an unexpected warmth and signals that this is not a blank-slate renovation but a negotiation with an existing context. Through the glass, passersby see the white shelving, the architectural models, the interior volumes. The studio becomes a kind of vitrine for its own practice.

This transparency is deliberate. The boundary between street and studio is porous enough to invite curiosity without sacrificing the privacy needed for focused work. The exterior gallery access reinforces this: you arrive by walking along the building's perimeter, circling the structure before entering, a procession that builds a sense of threshold even in a compact commercial building.

A Workspace That Accumulates

The open shelving system along the wall is the atelier's memory. Architectural models sit alongside books, equipment, and materials in an arrangement that is organized but deliberately not curated. These shelves serve as both storage and exhibition, a running record of the studio's output. The white architectural model on a glass shelf, reflected by the ceiling grid behind it, reads almost as a gallery installation, yet it is simply work in progress, left where it was made.

The green cutting mat on the central steel table anchors the room's functional core. It is the one surface in the atelier that unapologetically declares its purpose: this is where things get made. The Persian rug beneath it adds a domestic counter-note, softening what could otherwise feel like a clinical laboratory. These layered textures, industrial steel above, textile warmth below, are what keep the minimalism from tipping into austerity.

Furniture as Infrastructure

Nothing in the atelier is purely decorative. The wooden easel beside the street-facing window doubles as a display stand and a workspace divider. The bronze cabinetry on the window ledge stores supplies while maintaining a clean sightline to the exterior. Even the curved white partition framing the desk area is more furniture than wall: it defines the work zone without enclosing it, and its curvature guides circulation through the room like a gentle nudge.

This approach, treating every element as a piece of moveable infrastructure, is what gives the 30 m² its elastic quality. The atelier can be a photography studio one day and a meeting room the next because nothing is bolted into a single configuration. It is a space designed to be rearranged, and the intelligence of the project lies in making that rearrangement feel effortless rather than chaotic.

Plans and Drawings

The floor plan confirms what the photographs suggest: the atelier is a single rectangular volume organized by a central work table and a circular arrangement at one end for meetings or informal gatherings. The two freestanding planes are clearly legible as objects placed within the room rather than subdivisions of it. What the drawing also reveals is how little was actually added. The intervention is minimal in footprint but maximal in spatial effect, a masterclass in doing more with almost nothing.

Why This Project Matters

Small studio renovations rarely receive this level of design attention, and even more rarely do they deserve it. IAI Coletivo's atelier in Vila das Aves is an exception on both counts. By treating a 30 m² commercial unit as a serious architectural problem, the studio has produced a space that is simultaneously workspace, gallery, lab, and social hub, all without a single permanent wall. The project demonstrates that flexibility is not about emptiness or indeterminacy; it is about providing just enough structure for users to project their own intentions onto a space.

For young practices operating on tight budgets in peripheral towns, this is a useful precedent. You do not need a generous floor plate or a landmark building to produce architecture worth studying. You need a clear idea, an honest relationship with daylight, and the restraint to stop designing before the space loses its ability to change. IAI Coletivo stopped at exactly the right moment.

IAI Coletivo Atelier by IAI Coletivo (Lead Architect: Carlos Ferreira). Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso, Porto, Portugal. 30 m². Completed 2024.

About the Studio

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