Studio
Rua do Rosário 218, Porto
Fourteen architects, interior designers and makers in a former tile workshop near the river — designing a small number of houses, completely.
Fig. 01 — The long table, Rua do Rosário 218
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Our story
Morada began on a restoration site in the Douro, where an architect and an interior designer realised they were solving the same problems from opposite ends of the house.
2009
Founded in Porto by Inês Varela and Jonas Lindqvist.
2012
First new house, a courtyard house in Ponte de Lima.
2017
Move to Rua do Rosário, a former tile workshop.
2019
The material library opens to clients.
2023
First house in Spain begins, on Mallorca.
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What we believe
01
Begin with the day, not the façade.
We start with how a household actually lives — mornings, meals, guests, quiet — and let the building follow. The façade is the last thing we draw, and usually the better for it.
02
Keep the house in one hand.
Architecture, interiors and building stay in one studio, on one set of drawings. Fewer handovers means fewer compromises, and nobody arguing about whose problem the beam is.
03
Use what is near.
Granite, cork, oak, clay and lime from workshops we can visit. Local materials age the way the region’s houses always have, and are repaired by people who know them.
04
Leave room for life.
A house should not look finished on the day of the photographs. We leave walls for pictures not yet bought and shelves for books not yet read.
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People
The people at the table.
A small team on purpose. Every house is led by a founding partner and drawn by the same five or six people from the first sketch to the handover.
Inês Varela
Since 2009
Founding Partner, Architect
Trained at the Porto School of Architecture and spent seven years in a large Lisbon practice before founding Morada in 2009. Leads every project from the first site visit to the handover.
Jonas Lindqvist
Since 2009
Founding Partner, Interior Architect
Born in Gothenburg, trained at Konstfack in Stockholm and settled in Porto in 2008. Responsible for the interiors, the furniture and the material library.
Carolina Mendes
Since 2014
Associate, Head of Interiors
Turns a family’s habits into rooms, joinery and light — and knows every textile workshop between Guimarães and the Spanish border.
Rui Tavares
Since 2012
Associate Architect, Technical Lead
Makes sure that what we draw can be licensed, built and maintained for decades. Leads the construction drawings on every house.
Sofia Brandão
Since 2016
Project & Site Manager
Runs the tenders, the budgets and the weekly site meetings. Has walked a building site every week since 2016.
Duarte Lobo
Since 2019
Joinery & Furniture Designer
A trained cabinetmaker who draws the doors, handles, kitchens and furniture we make with workshops in the north of Portugal.
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Recognition
Join the studio
We hire one or two people a year — architects and interior designers with five years or more of experience, and the occasional apprentice cabinetmaker.
Send a portfolio and a few lines about a building you love.