fala atelier, Porto, Portugal

Passion: It starts with the overriding passion for architecture, with our unhealthy determination to work. We see architecture as a way to engage with the world, always working with a genuine curiosity and sensibility, breaking up with the accepted conventions.

Youth: We are aware of being a young office. We might be childish or naive. We don’t want to be serious yet, trying to maintain the sense of humour, seeing ourselves as a strange mix of modesty and self-assurance. But we are brave enough to be ourselves.

References: Engaging with the history of architecture is crucial. We are trying to establish our own identity questioning those who came before, selecting carefully our heroes, setting the foundation of our work, manipulating references and fragments of other buildings. Architecture as an act of curation.

Obsessions:  We live in an universe of personal obsessions, accurately composing our vocabulary, tackling the language of architecture, fighting for consistency but being keen on making new discoveries.

Mistakes: It’s all about clumsiness, unconventional beauty, mistakes, and imperfections. We have a crush on these humble, non-refined buildings and sometimes do things that are on the wrong side of a good taste. We are up for mistakes. Perfection is boring.

Contexts: Porto has its limitations and we might work on similar typologies. We have to be more inventive finding significant details in the most banal buildings, creating order out of this desperate confusion. All projects are becoming novelties with a proper mixture of the exaggerated, the boring, and the naive.

Format:  We are maniacs of format!

Everyday: Being in a state of uninterrupted production, fighting every-day bureaucracies, establishing routines. But we are not bored yet with the things that are supposed to be boring, balancing between the elegant conventions and flamboyant mannerisms, between intelligence and intuition, creating a set of rigorous rules but always finding an exception.