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Maria Fradinho
The founder of Frari, Maria João Fradinho Ribeiro, was born in Ílhavo (1984), a small town at the centre of Portugal. She was graduated in Architecture by FAAUL Porto. During this time, her studies were dedicated to the comprehension and exercise of the relationship between buildings and its surroundings. She participated in the ERASMUS program at ETSA Valencia, Spain, where she concluded her Master Degree (2008) under the thesis: “The urban-environmental relationship. The process of humanization of the city of Valencia” and, later, integrated the Leonardo da Vinci Program, in Amsterdam, for the admission to the Portuguese Ordem dos Arquitetos. At the same time, she has been a researcher for the international architecture magazine VOLUME/ARCHIS, with the architect Rem Koolhaas as editor.
In 2010, she returned to Portugal to create Frari, developing architectural projects in cooperation with multidisciplinary technicians. Maria Fradinho is passionate about nature and is always motivated to combine architecture and landscape in the most harmonious way possible . She develops a formalist architecture, without thereby undermining what she believes to be the most important thing: the intelligence of the strategy adopted for the space distribution. In July 2020, she was elected to be a Member of the Board of Directors for the Regional Section of the Center, for the Portuguese Ordem dos Arquitectos.
Practice Ideology
Frari – architecture network is an architecture practice located in Aveiro – Portugal. Founded by Maria Fradinho in 2010, Frari operates within the fields of architecture, urbanism and interior design.
The atelier counts on regular collaboration of external service providers, in diverse areas, such as engineering, topography, construction, landscaping, interior design, architectural photography and legal support, promoting knowledge of each multidisciplinary area of construction, and so, contributing to the appreciation of architecture as an exclusive product. With digital and printed publications in all continents, Frari is recognized for the excellence of its architecture proposals. The projection gained in the last years has resulted in several nominations for international architecture awards, having been elected “The Best Architecture office in the north west of Portugal”, by BUILD Architecture Awards 2019.