cprata arquitetos

The company C.Prata Arquitetos e Serviços Unipessoal, Lda. provides logical sequence, in a new organizational format, to the activity that Catarina Bianchi Prata is developing in liberal profession, both individually and collaborating with other architects, particularly with architect Eduardo Souto de Moura (with whom she worked for two years in Barcelona) and also with her father, the architect Carlos Prata (with whom she works in Oporto).
This last professional relationship led to a partnership with her father as a consultant. Therefore, integrating into the new business organization, the curriculums and portfolios of each architects, built throughout the years
The company’s activity focuses on the detail planning – housing development studies, detailed plans and municipal audit – urban design, equipment design and complementary equipment for construction, and fundamentally, architecture projects – including fixed furniture design and exterior improvements.
For the preparation of the projects the office works in association with other companies or experts, depending on the characteristics and size of the work thus ensuring fully the services it provides.

For us, being an architect is more than a job. It is a passion. It is this positive attitude and motivation that we try to instill amongst our collaborators and partners, while drawing: a significant portion of territory; a large building with a complex program; or a small design object. For us, each and every project is a challenge faced with our best abilities and available resources.
This professional attitude can be summarize as follows:

– The search of beauty, which is a specific goal of the architectural work. The study/search of: the proportion (relationship between the parts and the whole); the scale (man’s relation to space and the built environment); the balance of forms; the most suitable light for each environment; or the most adequate architectural language to meet the program and site. All of these aspects live on an equal footing with the more objective aspects of the profession, namely:

– The correct reading of the building program, as the ultimate will, desire and expectations of the client;

– The best team suited to address the specific problems that each project brings, taking in consideration the technical experience and knowledge of the legal framework;

– The search of passive solutions to ensure better energy efficiency and economic sustainability;

– The choice of technical and constructive solutions that best suit the functional program;

– The choice of the correct coating materials to ensure the buildings adequate mechanical resistance to climate and time, extending its lifetime;

– The confine design options to respect the budget set for the work, through an effective monitoring of the project and construction.

These main goals have been achieved by the special care taken at the different project fases. From the formalization of the idea to the search of its form/design: the coordination of the specific and special projects, the detail design and the construction monitoring.