Joaquim Portela Arquitetos

Joaquim Portela Arquitetos is an architecture studio in Porto, founded in 1997 and run since then as an architecture laboratory, where every project is treated as an exhaustive study across all design stages rather than a repetition of a formula.

The team works at very different scales — houses, chapels, universities, offices, exhibitions — and also designs the furniture and objects that inhabit its buildings, which is how the Silo series (chair, glass, door handle) and pieces such as Pascal, Moon and Lady came about.

Since 2019 the studio has been based on the ground floor of a building on Rua São Bartolomeu designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura, renovated by the office around one open, shared working space. Recognition includes iF Design Awards, German Design Awards, Good Design Awards and the International Architecture Award.