Gastão, 76 and Martim Cunha Ferreira, 50 are a father and son duo running Lisbon-based CF Arquitectos. They decided to join forces in 2017, bringing together decades of experience in both Portugal and Brazil.
With a lot in common, they also share their differences: “People joke about us because we argue a lot, and yes, we argue in a very intense and enthusiastic way”. The result is a rich portfolio of creative output ranging from 10m2 shopfronts to apartments, schools, religious spaces, parks, office buildings, hospitals, airports and cities.
Your website quotes an article written in the 1960’s by the Portuguese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, where architecture is described in terms of love for space, light, and other people, and as a fair relationship between landscape and society; outside of this, she suggests, only bad architecture can exist. How do you see these ideas today, in relation to your own practice?
G: It isn’t about looking at architecture at a certain point in time, or as a business, but rather as the consequence of an attitude, which is mostly a personal and social one. At the end of the day, we’re providing a service that has a huge impact on people’s lives and on society.
M: We see architecture as a service, and we try to approach every project in the most professional way, serving the client more than ourselves, and designing the best possible solutions to the problems presented to us.
The article we discussed places a strong emphasis on landscape and on the risks of speculation, false traditionalism, excess, and architecture made for show. In the Portuguese context, where real estate dynamics often shape the built environment and reinforce social disparities, how do you position your practice?
G: I’d say quality in architecture has nothing to do with luxury. Luxury is something you add to architecture, whether it’s good or not. One thing I like about a certain architecture in Brazil is that it’s very high-quality, made with simple materials and basically working with light, space, and design.
M: Today, architecture is becoming a luxury: it takes time, money, effort, and it’s not accessible to everyone. But luxury isn’t part of the essence of architecture or of beauty. Sophia writes that “beauty is a necessity, a principle of education and joy”.
“At the end of the day, we’re providing a service that has a huge impact on people’s lives and on society.”
How do you understand the role of beauty in your practice, namely in projects like school buildings?
G: In Parque Escolar, our effort was to do as much as possible with the budget: more space, more quality, with a strong focus on design, light and color, on the relationship between the interior and exterior, and the quality of the space. Today you can see students and teachers eating, playing, reading and talking among exhibits, all in the same space, and it works wonderfully.
M: In Colégio São João de Brito we jus made it beautiful and functional. The school carried out a very detailed study on what changed and the big shift is in terms of behaviour, fatigue, air quality, sound quality, even how teachers give their lessons, the remodel made an enormous difference. You have a very wide-ranging portfolio of work. But when a client approaches you to design a home, what’s the first thing you want to know?
M: I need to understand you in order to design a house for you. Everything starts with this relationship. People have dreams, though they’re sometimes not clearly defined. They can say, “I want a house, but I don’t know how many bedrooms”, or they might know they’d like a gym. But then come the interconnections between spaces, the inside and outside, the personality of the person, whether they need a quiet space or a space to host.
G: Poetically, I’d like to know their dream for the house. On the practical side, the question is “what is your budget?”.
“Today, architecture is becoming a luxury: it takes time, money, effort, and it’s not accessible to everyone. But luxury isn’t part of the essence of architecture or of beauty.”
You’re one of the first studios in Portugal to adopt tools like BIM, and you’ve developed a very rigorous and forward- thinking approach to digital methodologies in your practice. How would you evaluate their impact?
M: First, you need an architectural team and then a modelling team, which are two separate areas. 3D can sometimes be tricky, because the object becomes much more advanced than the solution itself. It presents a solution very quickly, but architecture needs time to develop.
G: Drawing by hand is natural: your brain drives your hand in the gesture, not only your fingers.
So, is the architects’ role also to stimulate the imagination of the people around them?
G: Yes!
For more information:
IG: @cunhaferreiraarquitectos
E: gastao@cunhaferreira-arquitectos.pt
W: www.cunhaferreira-arquitectos.pt
T: +351 917 534 513
