Fala atelier has colored Porto, Portugal, in its formal optimism and rejection of traditional residential typologies since it was established in 2013. The firm, based in Porto and Lausanne, Switzerland, continues its signature aesthetic with project 171. The residence features all the standard calling cards of a fala project: Punches of color, fragments of stone, splices of marble, and visual illusions. The team intervened in the existing space with an array of disruptive gestures that belie the logical through line of each room.

From the street, the building is faced with a new reflective hat, while the rear facade features a modern and colorful upgrade. Here glazing takes center stage, offering enclosed balconies for each level. They’re framed in yellow and rhythmically mediated with striations of mirror and marble. A new blue staircase and bright red railings lead to a back patio.

Inside the playfulness continues. In place of demolishing the majority of the interior, fala let the structure speak for itself. An I-beam, carried by thin metal poles, stretches the length of the space. The poles are not inert elements but active disruptors in space. They’re placed impractically—in front of windows and doors, and running upward through the staircase.

While the design may seem to embrace a lawless chaos, there’s rationale underneath the intersecting elements. Each room can be disassembled into shades of white, green, and blue. Rectilinear and gridded design, used in abundance, punctuate the space, from metal mesh to glass block, checkered tiles, and new wooden skirting.

A couple of strategic walls were added to the residence. In places where edges didn’t quite meet, fala used mirrors. “Mistakes result in a multiplicity of surfaces,” the firm described.

Though each room of the abode feels distinct from the last, each is made up of the same base fragments and logic. Like the mirrored reflections, the design abounds with types of use and reuse, texture, and complexity.