(“Text as submitted by architect”)
Mário Martins
Mário Martins was born in Lagos, Algarve, Portugal, in 1964 and graduated in 1988 from the Architecture Faculty of Lisbon Technical University. He worked for about one year in the architectural practice of Manuel Graça Dias and Egas José Vieira, and occasionally with the architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça. At the end of 1988, he decided to return to Lagos, setting up Oblíqua Arquitectos with the architect Vítor Lourenço, with whom he developed many projects before the partnership ended in 2000.
Since then, through the company Mário Martins Atelier with Maria José Rio (his business partner and wife), he has continued to focus exclusively on architecture, assisted by his enormously dedicated and hard-working team. With a contemporary style influenced by the place in which he mainly works—Algarve—his projects have undergone a natural process of evolving and maturing.
His work involves many types of projects, such as public facilities and private developments, new buildings or requalification: family homes, collective housing, tourist developments, restaurants, public facilities (sports, social, educational, recreational, etc.), urban regeneration, and urban planning (plans, studies, and development). He continues to dedicate himself to his profession as an architect with the same intensity and pleasure as he always had for architecture, for people, and for life itself.
Practice Ideology
The company, MÁRIO MARTINS – ATELIER DE ARQUITECTURA, LDA, based in Lagos and Lisbon, Portugal, has worked in the field of architecture and urban planning for about 30 years. The company consists of a diverse team of permanent staff and a group of technical teams that work together in the different areas and specialisations of projects.
The work from the past decades has resulted in a considerable volume and diversity of built projects: single-family houses, collective housing, residential condominiums, touristic developments, private and public facilities, urban renewal, and urban planning. His work over many years has garnered him a number of national and international awards. His works have been widely disseminated in exhibitions, conferences, and publications, including five monographs.
Working for clients of diverse backgrounds and cultures enriches him personally, professionally, and humanly. Knowledge and doubt encourage creativity. MMA looks for the future with profound respect for the past.
