(S)
Studio
Sheet S-001
Studio
Forty-six architects, model-makers and material specialists in two studios, working on a few buildings at a time.
Lisbon since 2002 · Zürich since 2011
Fig. S-01 — Courtyard of the Lisbon studio, 2019
Since 2002
A practice built on patience.
Ines Vauclair opened the studio in a former bakery on Rua das Flores with one drawing table and a commission for a small house in the Alentejo. That house still stands, cool on the hottest day of the year, and it set the tone for everything since.
Tomas Arvelo joined in 2008 and opened the Zürich studio three years later. Today we work across Europe on houses, libraries, museums and housing — never more than a dozen projects at once, so that every client works with a partner from the first sketch to the last door handle.
— Ines Vauclair & Tomas Arvelo, Partners
(S.2)
Principles
Sheet S-002
01
Light before form
We begin every project with the sun path and the shadows it casts. The building follows the light, not the other way round.
02
Few materials, used honestly
Concrete, timber, lime and stone, left as they are. No cladding pretending to be something it is not.
03
Built to be repaired
Every detail can be maintained by an ordinary builder with ordinary tools — for a century or more.
04
One team, start to finish
The architects who walk your site on the first day are the ones who hand you the keys on the last.
(S.3)
People
Sheet S-003
Ines Vauclair
Founding Partner
Lisbon
Tomas Arvelo
Partner
Zürich
Mira Solheim
Associate Director
Lisbon
Adaeze Okafor
Project Architect
Zürich
Rafael Quint
Head of Materials
Lisbon
Leo Brandt
Architect
Zürich
(S.4)
Recognition
Sheet S-004
Prémio Secil de Arquitectura
Shortlist
Mies van der Rohe Award
Nominee
Swiss Architecture Award
Winner
RIBA International Prize
Shortlist
FAD Architecture Awards
Finalist
Best Architects 22
Gold
Careers