Sculpted volumes that play with natural light; simple white forms that respond to warm climates and varied topographies; buildings both iconic and contextual defined by the use of clean, natural materials: Portuguese architecture firms continue to yield among the most restrained yet experimental projects in the world. Stemming from the schools of Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura, a large repertoire of firms has branched out to define an exciting new era of Portuguese design and thinking. The 25 firms from the Lisbon metropolitan area selected here are among those setting the directions of Portuguese architecture today:
Manuel Aires Mateus and Francisco Aires Mateus studied at the Technical University of Lisbon in the late 1980s. After a period of collaboration with the architect Gonçalo Byrne the architects opened their own studio in Lisbon, Aires Mateus and Associados, in 1988. The firm’s vast portfolio comprises projects ranging in scale from single family residences to urban infrastructure and public projects. Among its residential projects, the firm has completed the House in Monsaraz, which features a protected courtyard embracing the water on a site with a rich natural landscape. Working with strong geometries, the architects made use of unturned and inverted domes to cover and carve the building’s social areas, generating striking interior and exterior spaces.
2. KWY Studio
KWY is a multidisciplinary platform founded in 2009 by architects Ben Allen and Ricardo Gomes in Berlin, and curator and editor James Bae in Los Angeles. KWY’s projects are collaborations between the principals and invited specialists. Recent collaborators include artists, writers, curators, educators, designers and other architects. With few initial preconceptions, each project begins with dialogue and analysis between the collaborators. This process-oriented methodology often leads to diverse thoughts that are otherwise unexpected and unimaginable.
The driving focus of the Rebelo de Andrade atelier is the design, development and implementation of projects that articulate the positions of the various - often conflicting - interested in the creation of an architectural work. The studio works with the philosophy that knowing the place, its stories and the lifestyles of its inhabitants is not an accessory detail, but rather the foundation of a building that aspires to survive the inclement scrutiny of the future. It has completed such projects as House 3000 - with its bright red form, gable roof, doors and windows, the exterior design of the house seems to be the manifestation of a children’s drawing. This apparent simplicity is based on the collective and romantic imagery we all share.
Founded in Berlin in 1991 by Nuno Mateus and José Mateus, ARX Portugal is an office now based in Lisbon. Its architecture doesn’t follow a lexicon or a stabilized language: in every new project the studio searches for an experimental path to test new concepts that interest and fascinate its team. ARX’s projects include the Abrantes Municipal Market, located in a transition zone to Abrantes’ historical center. A public urban space, the project is at once a building and street, one with walls covered by a white-washed shell of exposed concrete.
Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos was founded by architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça in 1977. He lectured at the School of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon between 1977 and 1992, and was a professor at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa from 2001 to 2010 and at the Universidade de Évora since 2005. He headed the architecture departments at both institutions until 2010. He has been recognized with several distinctions, including: the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic, the Order of Merit by the Portuguese Republic, and the Piranesi Prix de Rome for his project of the Musealization of the São Jorge Castle’s Praça Nova Archeological Site, a strategic vantage point overlooking the estuary of the River Tagus and its inland territory of the first known human settlement of Lisbon.
CVDB ARQUITECTOS was founded by Cristina Veríssimo and Diogo Burnay in 1999. The studio’s projects have been developed since 2009 in association with Tiago Filipe Santos. The studio’s work ranges from urban design projects to new buildings, from rehabilitations to interior architecture and ephemeral structures. CVDB is committed to developing a professional practice associated with architectural research, understanding each project as an open and participatory design process.
7. PROMONTORIO
A five-partner firm lead by Paulo Martins Barata, Joao Luis Ferreira, Paulo Perloiro, Pedro Appleton and Joao Perloiro, PROMONTORIO is a full-service architecture, planning, landscaping, interior design and graphics team that originally formed in Lisbon in 1990 as an experimental studio. It has grown into a practice of 50 architects, planners, landscape architects, interior designers and graphic designers. As an underlying theme, the work of PROMONTORIO pursues a ‘system of robustness’ - solidity, stability and durability, both in terms of representational meaning and technical research. Its international projects range in type from schools, museums and cultural institutions, to housing, offices, hotels and retail.
8. Atelier DATA
Atelier DATA is an award-winning international design office with a multidisciplinary team based in Lisbon since 2005. It focuses on finding clear and innovative solutions to real problems in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design. Its projects include Casa Varatojo - a private residence with a design that promotes the relationship between building and landscape, taking advantage of hillside views overlooking the city of Torres Vedras, its castle and surroundings. The house is shaped by a spiral gesture to take advantage of its site.
Founded in 2010 by Sofia Couto and Sérgio Antunes, Aurora Arquitectos is a Lisbon-based studio that works on projects of a variety of scales, from small houses to multi-family residential buildings, as well as cultural facilities. Recently, the studio’s most developed theme and the focus of its specialization and research, is urban regeneration. In its approach, Aurora Arquitectos is careful to react to the site, its existing space and elements. Its projects include the Mustard Building, a new addition to an existing building in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal, on a heritage-protected site. A four-floor building divided in two to bring more light to a central patio, a small swimming pool and a terrace for sunbathing was designed on the last floor for social interaction.
Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos has an extensive body of work in Portugal and abroad. The practice, established by architect Gonçalo Byrne in 1991, approaches a generalist, multidisciplinary, and convergent architecture which may develop an enriching dialogue between new interventions and respective environments. It has completed projects such as The Interpretation Center of Jewish Culture -a monolithic building located in the dense urban fabric of a medieval fortified village, from which interior spaces are excavated and sculpted.
11. SAMI.Arquitectos
SAMI.Arquitectos was founded in 2005 by Inês Vieira da Silva and Miguel Vieira. Its projects have been designed for public and private clients in Europe, namely Portugal and Poland. The atelier has been selected for various prizes including the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies Van Der Rohe Award for the Gruta Das Torres Visitor Centre located on the Pico Island, Azores.
12. Atelier RUA
Atelier RUA is a collective of four architects: Francisco Garcia de Freitas, Luís Costa Valente, Paulo Vieira Borralho and Rui Velho Didier. It was founded in 2006 in Lisbon where the partnership develops activities in architecture, urban planning and design, in projects ranging from housing, exhibitions and the rehabilitation of buildings and public spaces. Its portfolio includes a camping site project in Abrantes, Portugal, which connects multiple interior programs along a curvilinear gallery that communicates with the exterior camping grounds via a continuous facade of vertical louvers.
13. António Costa Lima Arquitectos
António Costa Lima Arquitectos was established in 2012. It develops projects in a multidisciplinary way, seeking solutions that maximize efficiency and quality in creativity. Its services cover architecture, sustainable design, interior architecture, rehabilitation, urban planning, design and branding. Its projects include the House in Estoril, a residence designed as a promenade focused around a patio and which runs through different moments of the house - from its social areas, to private spaces, a terrace and a rooftop garden.
14. EXTRASTUDIO
EXTRASTUDIO is a globally-oriented, Lisbon-based architecture office with a portfolio of projects that spans from housing to public spaces. It was founded in 2003 by João Ferrão and João Costa Ribeiro following common collaborations stemming from the Faculdade de Arquitectura UTL, where both received degrees. The studio has been awarded in several architecture competitions that include the São Jacinto Natural Park Headquarters and the Valdebebas Urban Park, Madrid. The office has developed and patented an award-winning organic concrete material that is currently being developed in a joint venture with the Portuguese firm AMOP.
15. FAT – Future Architecture Thinking
FAT – Future Architecture Thinking is a multifaceted company established by Miguel Correia. The office pursues projects of architecture as well as those of urban planning, urban rehabilitation, landscape architecture and design. FAT is currently developing projects in Portugal and abroad. Its projects include Mar Vermelho e Mar Mediterrâneo Office Buildings, a project for two office buildings located on Parque das Nações in Lisbon and which feature metallic mesh and glass facades.
16. Site specific, arquitectura
Site specific, arquitectura is a Lisbon based architecture practice established in 2011, that has developed projects of various scales in a wide range of programs, from new construction to renovations and interior refurbishments. The office searches for the individuality and character of each project, embracing as one the requests of the program, the specificity of the context and location, the constraints and values of heritage, and the discipline of construction, budget and sustainability. Its projects include the rehabilitation and expansion of a primary school and kindergarten in Caselas. The new building acts as a link between the surroundings and the historic building, using patios and openings to the exterior to create visual crossings and volumetric connections that reinforce relationships with the adjacent neighborhood and greenery.
Pedra Silva Arquitectos is a Lisbon-based architecture and interior design studio, founded in 2003 by Luis Pedra Silva. Its portfolio encompasses works across diverse typologies and scales, both in Portugal and abroad, with a focus on healthcare, high-end residential and hospitality, and office design. Through personal and bespoke design solutions, combined with acute attention to detail and intimate work with both suppliers and artisans, the studio aims to create spaces that genuinely fulfill their purpose and contribute to the wellbeing of those who occupy them.
18. ATELIER CENTRAL Arquitectos
ATELIER CENTRAL (AC) was founded in 1996 by José Martinez Silva. The office works internationally, designing and developing projects in housing, hotels and resorts, industrial, public buildings, corporate design, schools, healthcare, sports and leisure, offices and retail, building consulting and urban planning. With a team of ten architects and designers, AC has completed projects such as the Vergílio Ferreira High School, a rehabilitation project defined by the use of slender rectangular steel profiles to support heavy concrete slabs with permanent metallic shuttering and a vertical grid of golden aluminum profiles.
19. Jorge Mealha Arquitecto Lda.
Jorge Mealha graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, Lisbon in 1987. Since then he has developed commercial, housing, industrial premises, schools and sports buildings. He has also taught architecture at the Faculdade de Arquitectura e Artes of Lisbon University Lusíada since 1991. His portfolio includes the Óbidos Technological Park Main Building, a striking building of steel, concrete and glass that frames a plaza amidst a park by means of a large cantilevered structure raised above the hillside.
Ricardo Bak Gordon was born in Lisbon in 1967 and studied at the Faculty of Architecture of Porto University, the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon’s Universidade Técnica and at the Milan Polytechnic Institute. He established his design studio in 2000 and has completed projects that include House in Sobral da Lagoa, a white volume with a constellation of colored windows which play with light and frame views to the town and beyond. It features a simple rooftop pool that appears to float above the surrounding greenery.
21. RISCO Architects
Risco is an architecture and urban design firm based in Lisbon and managed by Tomás Salgado, Nuno Lourenço, Carlos Cruz and Jorge Estriga. Since 1984, the studio has worked on more than 200 projects such as: the Belém Cultural Centre; the Public Spaces for EXPO’98; Luz Hospital in Lisbon; the Antas Urban Project and Dragão Stadium, in Porto; the new Cruise Ship Terminal in Ponta Delgada, Azores; the Sky Buildings, in Luanda; and the Football City, in Oeiras.
22. RAR.STUDIO
RAR.STUDIO is a Lisbon-based architectural practice that designs and produces places and objects through research and critical thinking. The studio’s design process is determined through client collaboration, mediation with supervisory entities, assembling and coordinating teams with specialist skills. It prides itself on efficient and precise project development.
23. Aterliermob
Ateliermob is a multidisciplinary platform for the development of ideas, research and projects in architecture, landscape, design and urbanism. The company was founded in 2005 in Lisbon. Its projects include the Alvega Canoeing Center, a volume internally divided into three bodies - a cafeteria, a boat storage area and changing cabins.
24. Camarim
Camarim is the architectural office created by Vasco Correia and Patrícia Sousa in 2007. The studio is involved in projects ranging from small, low-budget housing renovations to medium-size public buildings with innovative programs. The studio works in close dialogue with clients, consultants, contractors and end users, in a collaborative process of production, so that each project translates a holistic solution that is informed, intelligent and innovative.
Saraiva + Associados is an international ‘creative hub’ with more than a hundred of its employees based in Lisbon. S+A distinguishes itself by its capacity to be open to the world, adapting to each new market and to the challenges of an ever-changing society. Its portfolio includes the Tagus Gás Head Office Building, a BREEAM-certified building which features a unique, screened white facade.
