Porto — 41°09′N 8°37′W
Houses designed whole, from the first line to the last lamp.
Morada is an architecture and interiors studio in Porto. Since 2009 we have designed seventy-two private houses — new builds, restorations and complete renovations — with one team carrying each home from the first site visit to the day you move in.
Fig. 01 — Casa do Pinhal, Comporta · New build · 2023
(01)
The studio
We are a studio of fourteen architects and interior designers. We design the kitchen while we draw the walls, and choose the lamps before the ceiling is poured — because a house is finished not when the structure is, but when it fits the people inside it.
72
Houses completed since 2009
08
New commissions accepted each year
31
Workshops within 150 km of Porto
(02)
Selected houses
Each house begins with the people who will live in it.
“They asked how we spend Sunday mornings before they asked how many bedrooms we wanted.”
Ana & Miguel R. — Casa do Pinhal
(03)
What we do
One studio, from the site plan to the door handle.
Most houses pass through three or four firms before anyone moves in, and something is lost at every handover. We keep the whole house in one office — so the intentions of the first sketch survive all the way to the furniture.
1:500
The site
Architecture
We read the site before we draw: sun, wind, views, neighbours and the rules of the municipal plan. Then the concept, the licence application and every construction drawing.
Feasibility · Concept · Licensing
1:100
The house
Interior architecture
Plans drawn around daily life: where the light falls at breakfast, where the boots go, how sound travels at night. Kitchens, bathrooms, stairs and built-in joinery.
Plans · Kitchens · Lighting
1:20
The rooms
Interior design
Furniture, lighting, textiles and art, chosen or made for the house — sourced from makers we know, never from the catalogue of the season.
Furniture · Textiles · Art
1:1
The details
Joinery & building
Handles, hinges, stone edges, the last coat of lime. We tender the build, visit the site every week and stay until the keys change hands — then a year longer.
Tender · Site · Aftercare
(04)
How we work
Six steps, one table.
A new house takes between eighteen and thirty months. This is what happens in that time — and who you will be sitting with.
First conversation
Week 0 · 45 minutes · free
At the studio or by video. We talk about the site, the budget and the way you live. If we are not the right studio for you, we will say so — and recommend someone who is.
Listening & brief
Weeks 1–4
We visit the site, survey what exists and spend a day understanding how your household works. The result is a written brief that you sign off before we draw anything.
Concept
Weeks 5–12
Two or three spatial ideas, explored in sketches, models and light studies, with a first palette of materials and a first estimate of cost.
Design & licensing
Months 3–8
The chosen idea is developed in detail, inside and out, while the licence application makes its way through the municipality.
Detail & tender
Months 6–10
Construction drawings at 1:20, joinery and finishes schedules. We tender with three builders we trust and compare every line of every price.
Build, furnish, return
Months 10–24
Weekly site visits, furnishing and styling, the handover — and a full day back at the house twelve months later, after a complete cycle of seasons.
(05)
Material library
Made, mostly, within 150 kilometres.
The studio keeps a library of twelve hundred samples — stone, timber, cork, clay, lime and cloth — most of them from workshops we can drive to in an afternoon. Our clients choose by touch, not by scrolling.
Fig. 05 — The sample table, Rua do Rosário
Granite
Marco de Canaveses · 45 km
Oak
Trás-os-Montes · 120 km
Cork
Santa Maria da Feira · 30 km
Terracotta
Barcelos · 60 km
Linen
Guimarães · 55 km
Limestone
Moleanos · 190 km
(06)
Clients
In their words
01 / 03
“We had restored houses before, with three firms who never spoke to each other. Here there was one table, and everyone sat at it.”
The Ferraz family
Quinta da Ribeira — Douro Valley
