Arquitetura Entre Vistas ABROAD

This week, we travel to Aachen and Stuttgart to meet AMUNT, founded in 2009 by Björn Martenson, Sonja Nageland Jan Theissen.

AMUNT reinvent the existing. They pay attention to the quirky, the overlooked, the oddly specific. “There are ideas in these quirky things, that’s why we collect them.” But collecting is only the beginning. For AMUNT, these observations become operative: “to transfer means the possibility to bring something new to the vocabulary of architecture”. I agree.

Each project begins with context - not as something given, but as something constructed. “Everybody can create their own context… you design what you think is your context.” This openness also allows for letting go: “at some point, it becomes the client’s project on the inside, and we let go”. Wise.

Constraints play a central role. “We like to take benefits out of constraints… these constraints form a kind of character”. Within limits, they find freedom. “It helps you to find, in the sea of possibilities, a solution that is not just based on taste (…) If we have at least 2 reasons for something, then it’s really good”.
In the end, everything has a character: imperfect, specific, quietly alive…waiting to be found.

Guests: Björn Martenson + Sonja Nagel + Jan Theissen (Aachen + Stuttgart, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)

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Today, we travel to Zurich to meet Emanuel Christ, who, together with Christoph Gantenbein, founded Christ & Gantenbein in 1998.

With them, I learned that “form is communication”. As Aristotle would say it as a syllogism: “Form is language. Language is communication. Therefore, form is communication.”

But can we truly communicate if we invent our own language? Or if we aim for anonymity in the forms we use?

For Emanuel Christ, a good building speaks, “a good building speaks with other buildings; a good building speaks about other buildings.” Architecture, he argues, is a civic art, “it belongs to everybody. So please speak a language that can be understood by the majority of people, and at the same time, make it surprising, make it fresh, make it original.”

“Form is never an isolated thing per se.” It is typological, compositional, tectonic - a synthesis of thought and construction. Each project contributes to the evolution of a type: “the best projects have a clear typological principle that produces exceptions and frictions.”

For Christ, architecture is dialogue between past and present, the general and the specific, the universal and the local. Always familiar, yet always new.

Guest: Emanuel Christ (Zurich, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)

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This week, let’s travel to Rotterdam, Paris and Zurich to meet André Kempe and Oliver Thill, two German architects who founded Atelier Kempe Thill in 2000.
Talking about simplicity can be a complex task — but today, we take on that challenge. For Kempe and Thill, architecture is “the creation of order in the world of chaos.” “The world is already too complex,” they say, “and a piece of architecture can create a moment of order.” Yet simplicity, for them, is not effortless — “it takes a lot of effort to do something that at the end looks rather simple.”
Typology stands at the core of their thinking — “in typology there is a lot of collective knowledge.” The plan, followed by the section, becomes a tool for clarity. Their architecture resists spectacle: facades are rigorous, interiors quiet, and repetition reveals rather than hides logic.
Ultimately, “there is an order — but one that can always be a little bit stretched.” Between reason and softness, their work searches for balance — between the ideal and the real.
Guests: André Kempe + Oliver Thill (Rotterdam, Paris, Zurich)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Lugano, Switzerland, to meet Enrico Sassi — architect, landscaper, teacher of Urban Design at USI in Mendrisio, and editor of “archi”, a Swiss magazine of architecture and urban planning. From his studio in Lugano, he navigates the blurred lines between inside and outside, architecture and landscape.

“It’s not so important to make a distinction between inside and outside,” he says. What matters most is to “produce good living spaces.” For Sassi, “space is our specificity,” and materials are alive with possibilities: “each material has an expression… you can take out energy or beauty or interest from each material.” Nothing is ever wasted: “you don’t throw away a piece of stone. Keep. Keep because it is always useful.”

His work unfolds like an archaeological reading, where “you show stratas” and let the story be read over time. Theory is important, but it cannot remain abstract: “if we don’t have something in our head we are not able to do something with our hands. But only theory… it’s theory.” Construction itself is part of the story, and “you need to be ready to change your mind during the process because the story is moving and new things appear.” 
Maybe it’s an opportunity, it is not a problem.

Even bridges, pavilions, and infrastructures carry care and emotion: “color is adding joy to a piece,” he says, recalling a bridge touched by blue and yellow. “We don’t expect a bridge to transmit happiness.” But maybe we should.

Guest: Enrico Sassi (Lugano, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)

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Let’s travel to Zurich to meet Maria Conen and Raoul Sigl, working together since 2011 under the name Conen Sigl Architekten. Their practice is rooted in curiosity, precision, and a constant questioning of how architecture belongs - to its place, to its people, and to its stories.
“How is this building grounded in the neighbourhood?” they ask. Every project begins with observation - reading the place carefully, understanding “what do I look at in this project?” and leaving space for multiple answers. “Maybe there is not one answer, maybe there are a lot of answers.”
Drawing plays a special role - not as documentation, but as reflection. “Drawing as a synthesis is more to keep in mind our thoughts for the project.” These synthesis drawings are not about technical detail, but about memory and pleasure - “the things you are most interested in.”
Architecture, they say, should be precise yet open, allowing life to unfold in unexpected ways. “Not always the best materialisation or the best concept of colours makes a good space. Sometimes it’s the people.” Beauty, after all, is “so multilayered” - it shifts, resonates, and tells a different story each time you look.

Guests: Maria Conen + Raoul Sigl (Zurich, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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