(About) Solyno Atelier, since 2009
A small studio for slow architecture.
The model table, Madragoa studio
38.7089° N, 9.1611° W
(03) Timeline
Sixteen years, one window.
How a two-person studio with one west-facing window grew into a practice of eleven.
2009
Studio founded
Duarte Sol opens the studio in a former bakery in Madragoa with two drawing tables and a window facing west.
2012
A partnership
Inês Moreira joins as partner and the studio begins its first cultural commissions.
2016
First public building
We win the competition for a river shelter in Gerês, completed five years later.
2019
Restoration workshop
Henrique Dias sets up our lime and stone workshop with craftspeople in Évora.
2022
Galeria Pátio opens
The Porto gallery is shortlisted for the Portuguese Architecture Prize.
2025
Biblioteca Branca
Our largest public building to date opens to readers in Coimbra.
(04) Values
Four things we won’t compromise.
01
Light first
We find north before we find the view, and decide which room deserves the first hour of sun.
02
Few materials
Stone, lime, timber and concrete, used honestly and left to age without coatings.
03
Time on site
We visit every site at dawn and dusk before drawing, and every building again a year after handover.
04
Built to last
We design for the next hundred years: repairable details, breathable walls, generous rooms.
(05) People
The studio.
Architects, interior designers and one restorer who knows more about lime than anyone we have met.
Founding Partner
Duarte founded Solyno in 2009 after a decade in Porto drawing schools and houses. He leads every concept stage and still draws the first section of each project by hand, usually before the brief is finished.
Partner, Design Director
Inês joined in 2012 and leads the cultural and public work. She teaches a design studio on light and enclosure at the University of Lisbon and edits the studio’s Journal.
Project Architect
Tomás runs projects from first survey to handover, with a particular obsession for junctions: where stone meets timber, and where a wall finally meets the sky.
Interiors Lead
Marta shapes the rooms inside our buildings: joinery, lighting and the slow choreography of how a home is used from the first coffee to the last lamp.
Technical Architect
Rui translates drawings into buildable detail. He coordinates engineers and builders, and keeps the thousand small decisions on site faithful to the first idea.
(06) Recognition
Awards and publications.
Valmor Prize, honourable mention
Architizer A+ Awards, finalist — Cultural
Portuguese Architecture Prize, shortlist
Featured in El Croquis, “Iberian Light”
Wallpaper* Design Awards, Best New Shelter
Let’s talk about your site.
Tell us about it. We reply to every enquiry within two working days.