Everything a hand lands on. Oiled, never lacquered, so a scratch can be rubbed out rather than replaced.
We are not trying to grow. The studio is the size it is because that is how many houses two architects can properly watch being built at once.
That was 2015, a narrow house in Bonfim, and it settled how we have worked ever since: the plan of a house and the plan of its ground are drawn on the same table, by people who will both be on site when it is built.
Everything is drawn in-house. Joinery goes to one workshop in Valongo that we have used for a decade. Stone comes from within ninety kilometres, because carrying granite across a country is a strange thing to do.
We turn down more than we accept — usually because the timing is wrong for the planting, occasionally because the brief is really for a decorator and we would be the expensive way to get one.
Everything a hand lands on. Oiled, never lacquered, so a scratch can be rubbed out rather than replaced.
Cut within ninety kilometres of the site. Three thicknesses, one quarry, and the offcuts become steps.
Six coats, pigment in the mix rather than on top. It moves with the wall instead of cracking off it.
Grasses, cistus, olive, rosemary. Watered for two summers, then left to get on with it.
Where a piece will be moved, opened or leaned on for thirty years, João cuts the joint rather than screws it.
Runs the interiors and every site meeting. Trained in Porto, six years in Lisbon before that. Draws joinery herself and will not delegate it.
Structure, services, permits and the arguments that come with them. The reason the drawings a builder receives are ones they can price.
Joined in 2018. Plants for the climate we actually have — two dry summers of watering, then the garden is on its own.
Not on the payroll, but on every project. Builds the kitchens, tables and wardrobes we draw, and tells us when a drawing is nonsense.
Two hours in the house and on the ground. We measure, photograph and listen. Free, and it ends with a written scope.
Week 1Plans, one physical material board and three references we would build towards. You change what you want changed.
Weeks 2–6Every fitted piece drawn to the millimetre, planting listed by name and size, one folder a builder can tender from.
Weeks 6–16Weekly visits, daily answers to the builder, corrections made in place. Planting goes in during the right season.
Months 4–11A year of visits: what took, what did not, what needs cutting back. Joinery adjusted once the house has dried out.
Year 2
We would rather finish eight houses well than start twenty.