After studying architecture at the Porto School of Architecture, spending a year in Delft, completing a scholarship in Ahmedabad, and teaching for several years in Bangkok, Nuno Melo Sousa returned to his hometown of Penafiel, a 40-minute drive from Porto. From there, working with local clients, he built a career based on small projects, mostly single-family homes, which gradually evolved into larger buildings. Working under these conditions allowed him to distance himself from the noise of architectural centres, while also fostering a close connection with his clients on meticulously crafted projects that, although incorporating certain features of contemporary Portuguese architecture, depart from local tradition. His work testifies to a highly personal, yet distinctly contemporary, approach. Text: Valerio Olgiati, Manuel Mendes, Anneke Abhelakh.

Autorentext

Nuno Melo Sousa (Penafiel, Portugal, 1988) has been working since 2012 in his atelier, where he sometimes paints but mostly draws: on walls, on paper and on tables, as the slowness of the act of building leaves him yearning for the immediate. Besides living and working in Penafiel - in the same neighbourhood where he grew up - he previously studied at the Porto School of Architecture (FAUP), TU Delft and Sangath Ahmedabad.