Stories Focus on Fala Atelier Text by Elisabetta Donati de Conti Add to bookmarks Courtesy Fala Atelier This Portuguese studio has skilfully revived a naïve aesthetic rich in pastel colours, expressed through designs as simple as they are rich in personality, their conceptual superstructures revealed via meticulous detail. In this interview, practice members share how, behind a clear, contemporary visual narrative, their work is pure dedication and commitment. Name: Fala Atelier. Place where you work: Porto. Your Instagram account: @fala.atelier What is your job about? Miscellaneous elements of architecture, coming together. Where did you study? In Porto, Zurich, Moscow, and currently (all of us) at the Faculty of Architecture in Porto. Courtesy Fala Atelier Projects you are currently working on: Many, many houses, including our own. The project you dream of doing one day: A school or a kindergarten. The design (by others) that has influenced you the most: Toyo Ito, House in Kamiwada, 1976. Also Lieb House by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 1969. An element/detail that cannot be missing from any of your projects: Most probably a column. Courtesy Fala Atelier City centre or remote geographies? Remote city centre, not-so-remote geographies, because that might mean almost suburbia. Something you have at home designed by you: We’ve designed our own homes. What do you like to collect during a walk? Facades that look like faces. If you could build a secret passage in a house, where would it lead? To a big library. What do you usually do on Sundays? Work on our PhDs. Your favourite place in Milan: Streets that have Asnago Vender buildings. Elisa Ossino asks: Greeks or Etruscans? No question, Greeks. Would you like to ask the next interviewee a question? Yes: what is your favourite column? Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier Courtesy Fala Atelier
Stories The biology of light, according to Manuel Spitschan What does chronobiology have to do with design? Manuel Spitschan, professor at the Technische Universität München, explains why light is essential to our well-being. And why designers should know more about it to design better. Giulia Zappa
Sustainability The Piazze Aperte scheme is really changing the face of Milan Since 2018, the two local governments helmed by Mayor Giuseppe Sala have closed more than fifty of the city’s streets and roads to traffic – but not to people. And this is just the beginning Fabrizio Fasanella
Salone Selection Danish stratigraphy: material practices and ethical visions at 3daysofdesign 2025 Not a trade fair, but a cultural ecology - an interweaving of voices, materials, gestures and narratives that speak of sustainability, authenticity, conscious beauty Marilena Sobacchi
