SelgasCano: Second Home

Second Home is an innovative creative workspace provider, with a mission to support creativity, entrepreneurship and wellbeing in cities around the world. It has opened Second Home Lisboa, a 1,100 sqm space inside the Mercado Da Ribeira, Lisbon’s oldest food market.

  Every aspect of the space is designed to maximise collisions between our diverse community of industries and disciplines, so sparking the cross-fertilisation between different domains. There are over 1,000 plants and trees inside the space, which help support wellbeing, reduce background noise and improve air quality by reducing CO2 levels and increasing humidity whilst reducing airborne dust levels. Second Home Lisboa is one of the greenest buildings in Europe, deploying the latest environmental technologies. Instead of a traditional air-conditioning system, SelgasCano installed an advanced radiant heating and cooling system that uses cross ventilation of air and fluctuating base temperatures to provide the most comfortable feel within the space.

Since in the modern economy the demarcation between work and life – and work and home – are breaking down, at Second Home everything is domestic in scale, which is why there are over 300 different lights and chairs and none of the trappings of the traditional office like strip lighting, oppressive air conditioning systems and un-openable windows.
SelgasCano took a deliberate design decision to respect the beautiful beams and trusses of the market structure (originally built in 1892), which led to the innovative use of plants to create natural privacy between teams.

Second Home, Lisbon
Program: office
Architects: SelgasCano – Jose Selgas and Lucia Cano
Environmental engineer: Richie & Daffin
Prime contractor: Old2New
Area: 1,100 sqm
Completion: 2017