Manuel Ventura

I'm the CEO and creative director of Ventura + Partners.

Since 1994, we have been developing projects of different scales and in many architecture segments, such as commercial, corporate, residential, hospitality, industrial, healthcare, mobility, and urban space. We aim to improve people's lives through architecture, allowing meaningful interactions between them and their surrounding space. With offices in Portugal, USA and France, Ventura + Partners currently employs about 100 collaborators around the world.

The award creates additional motivation for the passionate dedication that this activity requires, helping us become more resistant to overcoming difficulties and continue fighting for the principles that guide our work.

The Essenza residential building had a fascinating creative process. It is a well-built project with complex development and challenging technical aspects. It has all the ingredients for what I consider a great project and is possibly one of my favorites.

Firstly, there were challenges associated with the ownership of the building. In 2010, the initial client decided not to move forward with the construction. The project was stalled for many years, almost a decade, when the land was sold. The new promoter wanted to make the same building, but we had to redo the entire distribution to include three more apartments. Although the 25 flats were already different from the start, each buyer wanted to personalize their homes. So it was a custom-fit work, unit by unit.

Each project is the result of a technical and artistic response given to a particular problem. The design comes from many accumulated experiences, from consolidated knowledge gained from old and recent memories made in all kinds of places. My design style is the alchemy of connecting it all in a creative response to a problem.

I was about fifteen years old when I chose the Arts path. Then, I had a visual arts teacher who took us to visit several buildings in Porto that were examples of outstanding architecture from each period. It then became clear that I wanted to study architecture.

There is no single answer or recipe for everyone. Every office has its formula; you just need to know what kind of office you want to be. My goal was to create an office with a dimension capable of providing the ideal conditions to conceptually develop any project. I wanted to bring together many different people from different sectors working together towards a common goal, which allows us to free architects for the conceptual development of projects. Of course, to maintain an office this size, we need a certain amount of work at all times. A strong connection with the business world is part of our own recipe.

When I start a project, my main goal is always the built work and the inhabited building. This is architecture for me. We get there in many ways. We have to know who the client is, what we are going to do, which program we will have, the financial availability, and then we look at reality and see how we are going to materialize the project in that location. We understand the size of the site and how the building will influence it, hopefully positively. We just need to find the best way to materialize it.