Journal
Materials
5 min read
Inside our material library
Twelve hundred samples, thirty-one workshops and one rule: if we cannot drive there in an afternoon, we think twice.
By Jonas Lindqvist
Note
Materials
At the back of our studio, behind the model table, is a room lined with shelves. It holds around twelve hundred samples: stone and timber, cork and clay, lime in a dozen colours, wool, linen and leather.
Choosing by touch
Materials are hard to judge on a screen. A limestone that looks warm in a photograph can feel cold underfoot; an oak that seems pale can glow in the evening light. So our clients choose by holding, scratching and comparing — usually at the big table with a coffee.
Almost every material in our houses can be traced back to a person we know by name.
Close to home
Most of the library comes from thirty-one workshops within 150 kilometres of Porto: granite from Marco de Canaveses, cork from Santa Maria da Feira, terracotta from Barcelos, linen woven near Guimarães. Short distances mean less transport, faster repairs and materials that age the way the region’s buildings always have.
