Collaboration as a Way of Working: Getting to Know the Work of Associated Architects

Written by Giovana Martino | Translated by Diogo Simões
Published on June 09, 2022

Headquartered in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, the architectural firm Arquitetos Associados presents a dynamic and varied way of dealing with each project. Based on a specific and specific work organization for each case, which allows for a varied team including external collaborators, the firm's way of working reflects on its unique projects.

+ 7

With nine associated architects, some of which are divided between the office and teaching, and another team of collaborators, the Minas Gerais office calls itself a collaborative studio that develops architectural projects alongside the teaching practice, committed to rethinking architectural issues, both programmatic and constructive, based on projects of various scales, public and private. Based on the tradition of modern Brazilian architecture, the firm seeks, in public tenders and larger-scale projects, to expand architectural research and questions, while smaller-scale projects bring about a reconsideration of vernacular construction.

Collaboration as a Way of Working: Getting to Know the Work of Associated Architects - Image 6 of 12 — Claudia Andujar Art Gallery / Arquitetos Associados. Image © Leonardo Finotti

Its dynamic way of working, based on the redefinition of work groups for each new project, contributes to the conceptual improvement and expands the possibility and quality of response to architectural questions. The contemporary approach of its projects seeks to guide the expansion of the useful life of constructions from concepts such as flexibility, mutability and user participation. The formal result of this combination of dilution of authorship from a varied team, and the constant reasoning and questioning of architectural issues, is printed in its projects with simple and synthetic forms combined with raw materials such as brick, wood, steel and the concrete.

The firm has won national awards since 1997, including competitions and design competitions, as well as international recognition, such as participation in the 2021 Venice Biennale or the award at the X Iberoamerican Bienal de Arquitectura e Urbanismo. In addition, it has publications in important architectural magazines, such as the Swiss Architectural Award 2018 and Summa +. Check out a selection of projects from the collaborative studio Arquitetos Associados below: