FLORET ARQUITECTURA

An architecture practice founded in 2001, in the city of Porto, by Adriana Floret (architecture) and David Afonso (philosophy). It is no accident that rehabilitation of built heritage is one of the reference areas of the studio’s work. Indeed, it is the backbone of the identity and model of the work method – integrated and interdisciplinary. It accepts architecture as a craft practice, a trade that is performed using academic and technological know-how and accumulated on-the-job experience, marked in particular by the specificity of the history of architecture and local construction methods. In addition to heritage issues, the practice’s identity was largely constructed in tandem with civic participation and the exercise of this profession as a craft, an artisanal activity. Today, this characteristic is still an identifying feature inscribed in our work methodology and organisation. Private commissions have been the core of the studio’s trajectory, focusing on small-scale rehabilitation projects which ultimately formed a specialist team. At the same time, the practice carried out a number of urban studies and surveys of hundreds of buildings. It also produced base documents used to draw up strategic rehabilitation plans for a series of city blocks in Porto’s Baixa, the downtown area, and in the Historic Centre. At present, the practice’s commissions and its portfolio are richly diverse, embracing projects that do not fall within the scope of urban rehabilitation in the true sense of the word, although still strongly influenced by that experience.

source: Office Web