2G: Fala Atelier (Porto)

Book excerpt: Fala is a young architecture practice founded in 2013 in Porto, and led by Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares and Ahmed Belkhodja. Hedonistic yet restrained, the studio takes lightness and joy very seriously. Their projects can be characterized by a strong tendency towards autonomy, or better: towards an emerging independence of architectural language. Many of the refurbishment projects in Porto were initiated by private investors, trying to make a fortune by real estate speculation. After the economic crisis of 2008 the downtowns of Porto and Lisbon were confronted with a rampant boom in tourism. Speculation was propelled by special governmental measures such as the relief of a far-reaching protection against dismissal or the easy availability of golden visas. This may be the reason why some of Fala's projects come across like topical declinations of the same program: separation of auxiliary functions from the main space, zoning of the plan, opening and staging of the view onto a small courtyard.