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Interview with Ricardo Porto Ferreira |
Home > Designer Interviews > Ricardo Porto Ferreira |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Ricardo Porto Ferreira (RPF) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Ricardo Porto Ferreira by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
RPF: Ricardo Porto Ferreira is an architect with relevant experience in large-scale designs of mater plans and architecture, having worked on several high profile projects, lead the design of residential and mixed-use towers providing innovative and sustainable design solutions. He lead project teams from vision to execution, ensuring continuity of the principles defined throughout the development process. His experience covers all phases of design, from preliminary study, licensing to the execution project for projects ranging from urban planning to the renovation of a private house. In addition to a considerable international experience in terms of Design, he has also been involved repeatedly in attracting projects and defining and controlling the quality standards of companies and projects. Graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto in 2007. He is a active member of the Portuguese Architects Association, American Institute of Architects and Project Management Institute.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
RPF: Porto Architects is a Architecture, Interior Design and Planning studio based in Porto. We are minded to create meaningful and beautiful design, embrace a lifestyle of opposing paradigms and standards. The spectrum of the scale and nature of the studio’s work varies dramatically, although every project shares a commitment to authenticity, resonance of material and experimentation rooted in precedent. Using experience, passion and keen judgement, the OPOARC team strives to make every space the only one of its kind efficiently. Founded in 2018, Porto Architects is an eponym that aggregates the city´s name from where the studio is based, the founder´s family name and the practical manifestation across diverse scales of design and disciplines to create spaces balanced in form, function and detail. Our architectural approach to design traces context, individual and social response to create spaces and experiences unique to each project and client.
FS: What is "design" for you?
RPF: Design is a emotional reaction to a rational predicament. Is the philosophical response expressed in words and drawings that represent feelings that are unique for each location, space and object.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
RPF: Complex large scale developments in remote locations as they challenge designers to find the connectors that are not visible to the common eye and eventually non-existent, making the research and the generation of new ideas the shaping of the future.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
RPF: Every design project has its own beauty and challenge regardless of size, type or location. The “design language” of each building is designed specifically for its context, place and purpose.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
RPF: The public space renovation for a housing complex in the Netherlands.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
RPF: Hand sketches and drawings are still the most human expression of the mind, and because of that the best instrument to interconnect with the client.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
RPF: Immediately before being absorbed by the project. After this moment, beauty becomes overwhelmed by technicality and all discussions become rational. This is also a representation of the project going forward from the concept to detail stages.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
RPF: With the ever increasing number of platforms to display designs, it increases opportunity to promote new, different and other. We have seen seeing new companies being created out of the big ones with top management and designers leaving in search for new challenges that translate in new design to which they relate and are a representation of their perspectives. This is a reflection of a less constrained market allowing new businesses to thrive with more but smaller egos, then the “star-system” produced. The desire that a design solution achieves the mark of iconic is now parallel to the benefits and positive impact that the solution can actually create. We are no longer looking only to the meaning but to the impact.
FS: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
RPF: The printed versions of books and magazines have a sense of proportion between the canvas, image size, fonts and colors that the digital still has not been able to translate to the multitude of devices with the same quality and control that the printed version delivers. Despite this, I would have be blindfolded to avoid using the internet as a source of information and references from around the world. The curation of these sources is nowadays the definition of quality.
FS: Can you describe a day in your life?
RPF: Being and entrepreneur suggests multitasking and a tight schedule between office and project activities by definition, which puts pressure in the team with a very reduced margin for error and none for procrastination. I am involved directly in all projects and stages; unplanned pin-up sessions are constant to motivate an open-dialog and criticism and perfectionism in everything we do.
FS: What is your "golden rule" in design?
RPF: All disciplines or activities that relate to some level of research find an uncertainty that operational jobs avoid at all costs. Designing a building, an interior or an object includes both. Finding flexible solutions, adaptable and adjustable can in many cases mitigate the unknowns that long periods of development can unveil.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
RPF: Designers that are resilient problem-solvers face all stages of design with the optimism that the solution will come to them if they keep searching.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
RPF: From private owners to corporate international companies.
FS: How can people contact you?
RPF: When in Porto, I can be reached in our office in the Douro riverside or via email - opo@portoarchitects.com
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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