01 · About
The work is the argument. We stay out of it.
A studio of four, founded in 2014, that still only takes on the projects it can visit on site every week.
02 · The story
It started with one person, a drawing board, and a twenty-square-metre office.
Forma Atelier opened in 2014, founded by Inês Vidal Cardoso after seven years drawing at larger studios in Porto and Lisbon. It began alone, on Rua de Cedofeita, with a small restoration and a promise to deliver it properly.
Twelve years and thirty-one built projects later, there are four of us. Most of the work is still in Porto and the north, between single houses and the restoration of nineteenth-century buildings, which is where Inês says you learn to draw well fastest.
No partner sits out of a site visit. That rule, not a wish to stay small, decides the size of the studio: four people can put someone on every site, and five projects at once is the limit before that stops being true.
Inês Vidal Cardoso
Founded the studio in 2014, and the architect responsible for every project that leaves it.
03 · How we think
The drawing exists for the building, not the portfolio.
The work speaks first
We do not write about concept or inspiration. A project shows itself built, or it does not show itself.
Few, all of them visited
Four people can only follow five sites at once, and that is the difference between a handsome drawing and a building that works.
The existing building rules
In a restoration, the most important decision is usually the thing you leave alone.
No house style
A house in Aldoar and a civic centre in Valongo do not have to look alike. They only have to answer well to what was asked of them.