Episode 54

“Everyone – from the contractor to the inspection and the representative of the work's owner was always enthusiastic during the project. [It was something that] had never happened to us to the point that there were simple workers who cried when we discovered the frescoes by [Júlio] Pomar, which were covered.”

[Sérgio Fernandez]

Episode 55

“I think that, above all, the experience of working with natural materials and with simple things: the Chapel [of Nossa Senhora de Fátima] turned out to be a little bit also the result of our experience and our learning as scouts.”

[Pedro Ferreira]

Episode 56

“Architecture cannot be a selfish exercise. It is not a house of its own. It will be a house that will be used for the next generations. Whether it's for the generations [those families] leave behind or for the generations that will buy that property.”

[Tiago Rebelo de Andrade]

Episode 57

“Houses are our private museums, they are our religious or spiritual place, where we confess and where we live... [Where we learn to take our first steps]. [It was] our kindergarten. It will be our retirement home, our restaurant. It's all this.”

[Mário Rebelo de Sousa]

Episode 58

“Seeing customer satisfaction, the pleasure of seeing them after a few years, [noticing that] they still have that enthusiasm of being [in the Mountain House]... They love being there, going for there. For us, all of this is something that, indeed, is priceless.”

[Guiomar Rosa]

Mountain House in Gerês, © Photo Fernando Guerra | FG + SG

Episode 59

“And it's very interesting because they realize that there is an interest in what their home is. And, therefore, they feel: «My house must be sensational, they are always coming to visit it.» They are super proud to be visited, and I suppose they prepare to receive people.”

[Francisco Aires Mateus]

Episode 60

“I think it is also crucial for us, as architects, to guide what we intend to do because, sometimes, there is still a certain idea that a participatory project is almost like handing people a pen. As if [people] were going to explain how we have to do the project, but that's not quite it. We, as architects, listen to people. But actually, the people decided that it was to build a school there and that it was to build that specific school.”

[Paulo Moreira]

Episode 61

“But, indeed, I can most identify here the importance of how urgent it is for us – as architects and in our architectural practice – to be deeply aware of ecological issues in architecture.”

[Andreia Garcia]

Episode 62

“I hope that this school will have a great impact on the production of not only good architects but also good artists and good thinkers, so they can be able to improve the society we live in and that other people will live in the future.”

[Fátima Fernandes]

Episode 63

“We feel a great responsibility that what we are doing is not for us. (...) It’s not for the customer, nor is it for us. It’s for the city. It’s for the village. It’s for the people. That’s a big responsibility, and we do not escape this commitment.”

[Teresa Novais]

Episode 64

“The fact that architects can talk is fantastic, so I think [the] more programs like that there are... the more democratically designed public contests [there are] better. It can only do good for our profession and architecture.”

[João Branco]

Episode 65

“I am mainly interested in big cities and how they function as a living organism. For example, it is impressive how a city like Tokyo with a megalopolis of that dimension is so structured and organized.”

[Ana Aragão]

Episode 66

“[That was] what we set out to do in creating a museum that really belongs to the city, that belongs to everybody who passes by it, who walks over it, who enters inside it. That created a new sense of place and destination.”

[Amanda Levete]

Episode 67

“I think you only learn to build by building. We, as students, in college, learned a lot, but managing a client, following the construction work, carrying out the work licensing, understanding what an execution project is, and realizing what civil responsibility is... I think that all these things only happen seriously when we are in a position to pass them by.”

[Filipe Almeida]