Started in Berlin (1991) by Nuno Mateus and José Mateus, ARX Portugal is an architecture office based in Lisbon.

Our architecture doesn’t follow a lexicon or a stabilized language. In every new project we try to find the “vocables” for a specific language to the new context. More than searching common points between each new project and the previous, our interest focus more on finding differences. It is as if we were always returning to zero. And, at a certain level, that is our conception of innovation.

Evidently this approach also opens up a vast research field. Not having to work within rigid precepts, we search an experimental path where we can test new concepts starting from what interest and fascinates us. Meanwhile, wise seem to us the words of the Brazilian poet and philosopher António Cícero that once said: “what is interesting, it is not much writing something new, but writing something that the reading doesn’t date it.”

The future is always hard to predict, but, com-probingly, after the revolutions, of the disinterest in history and the globalization, there will be certainly a return to the local, to the specific, to the architecture made of small but solid impulses from the things that arrive to us.


Nuno Mateus

Partner

Castelo Branco,1961.

PhD in Architecture, FAUTL, Lisbon, 2013.

Master of Science in Architecture and Building Design at Columbia University in New York, 1987.

Founded ARX Portugal Arquitectos, 1991.

Teacher at FAUTL and UAL, Lisbon.

UAL’s Director of the Architecture Department, 2004 -07.

Visiting professor in Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (ESARQ-UIC) in Barcelona and followed Architectural thesis projects at ESAP (Escola Superior Artística do Porto).

Has worked among others with Peter Eisenman in New York from 1987 until 1991 and with Daniel Libeskind in Berlin in 1991.


José Mateus

Partner

Castelo Branco, 1963.

Graduated in Architecture, FAUTL, Lisbon, 1986.

Founded ARX Portugal Arquitectos, 1991.

Guest professor at the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, he was teacher at the Escola Técnica Superior d’ Arquitectura of the Universitat Internacional da Catalunya (ESARQ-UIC), in Barcelona; at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE) and at the Escola Superior de Artes Decorativas de Lisboa (ESAD).

Currently President of the Director’s Board of Lisbon Architecture Triennale, was also Executive Director of the events Trienal 2007 and Trienal 2010.Currently a member of Babel’s Editorial Board.

Was President of the Southern Regional Assembly of the Ordem dos Arquitectos (2008-2010), as well as Vice President of the Direction of the same Regional Section (2005-2007).

Author/coordinator of the magazine Linha (Architecture, Design and Landscape) of the weekly newspaper Expresso. He was also author/coordinator of the two television series Tempo & Traço for SIC Notícias channel.

Jury member in several Architecture prizes.


Team

Associate Architects:

Ana Sofia Amador,  Ricardo Guerreiro.

Architects:

Ana Gregório, André Pires, António Correia, Carlota Tavares, Cristiana Barata, Diogo Câmara, Eduardo Oliveira, Eduardo Sousa, Gonçalo Santos, Luísa Martinho, Maria Arez Lopes, Pedro Joaquim, Renato Santos, Rodrigo Alves, Rui Miguel Castro.

Studio Manager:

João Mateus.

Former colaborators:

Adriana Morgado, Adrien Zieba, Afonso Botelho, Afonso Gil, Alain Gameiro, Alberto Zotti, Alessandro Brunelli, Alexandra Margaça, Ana Acosta, Ana Isabel Ferreira, Ana Luísa Fontes, Ana Pinto, Ana Rita Santos, Ana Sofia Monteiro, André Luís, Andrea Tocolini, Andreia Tomé, Aslıhan Ay Güngör, Baptiste Fleury, Bruno Gonçalves, Bruno Henriques, Bruno Martins, Carla Louro Justo, Carlos Carvalho, Carlos Ribeiro, Carlos Vadillo, Clara Martins, Clara Scarlatti, Cláudia Silva, Costanza Marchetti, Cristiana Monteiro, Cynthia Atoui, Dário Assante, David Charpy, David Grade, Décio Cardoso, Delphine Sémondès, Diana Afonso, Dinis Ricardo, Diogo Curveira Santos, Diogo D’Orey, Edoardo Tonello, Eduardo Arnaut, Elisa Cecchini, Elsa Fonseca, Emanuel Rebelo, Fábio Cortês, Fábio Paulo, Fábio Rosado, Federico Patacchiola, Fernando Mota, Filipe Cardoso, Francisco Marques, François da Silva, Gabriel Santos, Gonçalo Azevedo, Gonçalo Manteigas, Hector Bajo, Hristijan Babuka, Hugo Neto, Inês Camacho, Isabel Gorjão Henriques, Isabel Mello, Jakub Chaloupek, Joana Pacheco, Joana Peres Rodrigues, João Alves, João Dantas, João Delgado, João Góis, João Portalete, João Rodrigues, João Valente, Jorge Sequeira, Jorge Silva, Justin Korhammer, Lavinia Minciacchi, Léo Raphael, Leonor Costa Afonso, Lígia Silva, Luís Marques, Manuela Cruzeiro, Marcelo Cardia, Marco Roque Antunes, Margarida Bernardes, Maria Fuzeta da Ponte, Mariana Sá, Mário Rino, Mathias Schmith, Mattia Caccin, Mauro Soro, Michele Flores, Miguel de Almeida Torres, Naohiko Hino, Nicolas Burckhardt, Nicolas Cartier,  Nuno Carrajola, Nuno Grancho, Nuno Nascimento, Nuno Pinto, Olimpia Pilarz, Olivier Ottevaere, Oliwia Laura, Oskar Lewandowski, Paulina Majtyka, Paulo Henrique, Paulo Rocha, Paulo Serôdio Lopes, Pedro Alves, Pedro Dourado, Pedro Jesus, Pedro Sousa, Philipp Rietheimer, Raquel de Sousa Henriques, Raquel Serralheiro, Ricardo França, Rita Sampaio, Rodrigo Veloso, Ruben Arend, Rui Picoto Cunha, Sandy Henriques, Sara Amado, Sara Nieto, Sofia Ferrari, Sofia Raposo, Sónia Luz, Stefano Riva, Susana Ferreira, Susana Rego, Tânia Lima Baptista, Tânia Pedro, Teresa Mendonça, Teresa Ribeiro, Tiago Santos, Vera Beltrão, Vítor Carreira Araújo, Vitória Vazquez Pereira, Yoshiaki Hamauzu, Zolaykha Sherzad.