Today, we prioritize architectural solutions that focus on resilience, flexibility, health, and well-being. To achieve these goals, all of our projects address environmental sustainability issues holistically, ranging from the efficient use of natural resources to the application of circular economy strategies, biophilia, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality. We harness the power of design and architecture to enhance the experience for everyone and ensure the future of upcoming generations with construction solutions that promote environmental balance and planet protection.
We believe that all the natural resources we extract from the environment should be replenished and returned at the end of their life cycle, without harmful emissions to the planet, especially human-caused greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, among others. To this end, our team has an environmental sustainability department aimed at meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. This means striving for a climate-neutral society by 2050 and making every effort to limit the global average temperature increase to below 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels.
We also endorse the European Union’s long-term strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, committing to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Therefore, we support the proposal presented by the European Commission in Brussels on December 15, 2021, that from 2030 onwards all new buildings must have zero emissions. In other words, from 2030, no fossil fuels, including natural gas, should be used in the construction of new buildings, and by 2050, this should apply to all buildings.
We support the petition for the Portuguese Assembly of the Republic to decree the end of the mandatory installation of gas networks in homes, with the revocation of points 1 and 2 of Article 3 of Decree-Law No. 97/2017, an existing law that mandates “the requirement of natural gas installations in construction, expansion, recovery, or reconstruction projects of buildings,” which is completely misaligned with national and international guidelines for combating climate change. Although the points have been revoked, it is not enough. It’s not sufficient for fossil fuel use to be optional; we must act for the complete elimination of their use in buildings and achieve a transition to 100% clean energies.
Therefore, for the sake of the environment, as architects, we are also activists in the course of our work. We share and promote all environmental activism actions that resonate with our team. Additionally, since 2014, our studio has been acquiring and managing various lands, both in rural and urban spaces, for the planting of multi-cultural forests with carefully selected species aimed at optimizing natural processes for carbon dioxide sequestration from the atmosphere. This way, we promote biodiversity and eliminate the ecological footprint of the studio and its team. Today, we manage over 30,000 square meters of forest and capture around 54 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Our goal is to gradually increase this and eventually reach 1,000 tons per year.
It’s a fact that within the European Union, the built environment is responsible for consuming 40% of all energy and generating 36% of greenhouse gas emissions. Heating, cooling, and producing domestic hot water in our homes account for 80% of all domestic energy consumption. Additionally, on average, the European Union produces 2.5 billion tons of waste per year, with 36% coming from the construction sector.
To address environmental sustainability issues and create a circular economy, we collaborate with our clients in the design of our projects to develop personalized and optimized architectural solutions for both human use and the planet. Our team specializes in operational and embodied carbon impact assessments during construction and subsequent building use, environmental impact assessments (EIA), sustainable material usage, landscaping, biophilia, well-being, and environmental engineering. Together with our architecture and engineering teams, we assess the environmental performance of our projects, develop sustainable constructions, and establish environmental goals for a healthier world.