01

The Threshold

Walk in
SIENNA · The Walk
Opening the house…

Interior Architecture · Est. 2002

A house is not a set of rooms. It is a sequence of arrivals.

We design residential and hospitality interiors in two materials and one light. The restraint is not a style — it is what is left after everything unnecessary has been argued out of the drawing.

Every commission begins the same way: we walk the empty space at the hour you will use it most, and we do not draw anything until we have.

A living room in travertine and charcoal

One quarry. One block. One continuous grain.

A monolithic travertine island
Cut for this house alone
01

Distinctive spaces

Rooms built around one idea each, carried through in stone and plaster rather than decoration. Nothing is added to fill a gap.

Our projects
02

An immersive process

Concept, drawing, joinery and site run as one continuous piece of work. You speak to the people who drew it, from first sketch to handover.

Our process
03

Work that endures

Quarried stone, solid oak, hand-floated lime. Materials chosen because they improve over twenty years rather than photograph well for two.

Our studio
The Specification

Six rooms. Two materials.

Selected Rooms 01/06
What we take on

Three kinds of commission.

Never more than four a year
01 Private Residences
24 completed
02 Hotels & Resorts
11 completed
03 Branded Residences
3 completed
01

Charcoal

Lime plaster and micro-cement, hand-floated so the wall holds light instead of bouncing it. It is the quiet the rest of the house is built against.

02

Travertine

Book-matched underfoot, carved where it is furniture. One quarry, one block, one continuous grain running the length of the house.

A carved travertine bath

A Balance of Form

The Studio

Curious, exacting, slow on purpose.

We take on four houses a year

Not because we cannot do more, but because the fifth would be drawn by someone who had not stood in the room. Every project is run by a principal from first visit to final snag.

We draw everything twice

Once to find out what the space wants, and once to take away everything that was only there because we could. The second drawing is always the shorter one.

We buy the block, not the slab

Stone is bought whole and cut for the house, so a floor, a stair and an island read as one continuous grain. It costs more and it is the only way to get it.

0Years in practice
0Residences completed
0Countries
0Materials
The people

Eleven of us. No juniors on your house.

Inês CarvalhoFounding PrincipalWith the studio since 2002
Tomás RibeiroPrincipal, ResidentialWith the studio since 2006
Marta SanzPrincipal, HospitalityWith the studio since 2011
Henrique LoboHead of JoineryWith the studio since 2009
Clara AmaralStone & MaterialsWith the studio since 2015
Rui AndradeSite DirectorWith the studio since 2008
Before you write

The questions everyone asks.