Architecture Competition Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel Honorable mention – Diogo Lopes, Sara Pertile, Simone Antonelli and Susan Isawi

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our "Monte D'Oiro Wine Hotel" competition – Diogo Lopes, Sara Pertile, Simone Antonelli and Susan Isawi from Portugal!

Honorable mention winners from Portugal

Our team is international, heterogeneous, and dynamic, born from the connection and multicultural weaving of architects that share the same point of view for an architecture that sees in simplicity a resolved complexity.

The ancient used to say “de te fabula narratur”, meaning “it is you that is spoken of in this fable”. Our projects transform themselves into stories that inevitably speak about us, our travels, and our encounters.

Thus, the Luso-Italian Atelier Lopes Pertile Architects meets the Italian-Jordanian landscape architect Susan Isawi in a blend brought and held together by the Roman communicative skills of Simone Antonelli Images.

Lopes Pertile Architects

An architecture atelier based in Portugal, founded in 2017 by Italian architect Sara Pertile and Portuguese architect Diogo Lopes.

Sara Pertile studied architecture at IUAV University of Venice in Italy and at the College of Architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago with an international exchange scholarship. She was distinguished with merit from both universities. She has worked in Portugal at Atelier Martins Architecture Office in Guimarães. Nowadays, at the LPA Atelier, she oversees the design process of architectural conceptualization, interior projects, and the coordinator of the creative department.

Diogo Lopes studied architecture at Escola de Arquitectura da Universidade do Minho in Guimarães, in Portugal, and received an Erasmus scholarship at the IUAV University of Venice, Italy. In 2015, he enrolled in an internship at CZ Studio Associati in Venice, where he started practicing architecture and where he later became a young associate. Nowadays, at the LPA Atelier, he oversees the construction documents and administration. He is also the main project manager and coordinator between all the parties involved in the projects.

Simone Antonelli Images

The studio was founded in 2019 by Simone Antonelli, in an unspecified place and uncertain time. In 2021, the work has been developed between the Netherlands and Italy, growing international client relationships.

He speaks about architecture in its intimate essence, being a landscape architect and visual artist. He studied landscape architecture at the Sapienza University of Rome and has collaborated with established firms in Venice (CZ Studio Associati) and in Ronciglione (DeltaStudio).

Susan Isawi Landscape Architect

She completed her master’s degree in landscape architecture at the Sapienza University of Rome and received an Erasmus scholarship at the Escola de Arquitectura paisajista da Universidade de Evora, Portugal. She has extensive experience in large-scale urban planning and landscape interventions. After an inspiring start working with several firms in Madrid and Rome, in 2018, she started her collaboration with Okra landschapsarchitecten, a landscape architecture studio based in the Netherlands, where she has been involved in the design of green spaces until now.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

Lopes Pertile Architects

The Atelier has its roots in contemporary Portuguese architecture and follows its projects from their creative conceptual birth to their rigorous construction.

The Atelier deals mostly with small- and medium-scale projects, having been developing its experience that ranges from designing custom details to the continuous process research of the meticulous insertion of its projects at urban scale.

Architecture, for us, is not just about construction; there should exist a balance between matter and life by creating new ways of living through a contemporary language, which is a representation of our time or its critique.

The main focus of our practice is the obsession with distilling that moment in which technique is transformed into poetry.

Simone Antonelli Images

The project is inherently experimental, self-taught, and personal. The only aim is to tell about the relations between different spaces (architectures) and humans. In a context where communication has become ever more homologate, it’s essential to create an alternative, trying to imprint in each image a story that talks about different aspects, to talk about space in evocative and surreal atmospheres.

Susan Isawi Landscape Architect

The landscape functions as a starting point to get in contact with the environment, understanding the space and its aspects. The design process starts with reflecting on the essential components of a space and the people who live in it, matching this idea with the knowledge of the landscape and the biodiversity systems. With a multidisciplinary approach, she has been working with small- to large-scale projects: parks, waterfront, and residential gardens, developing concepts addressing climate adaptation as the main focus.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

The future of architecture lies in the ideas, as these have a real unconscious impact in our life, therefore lasting over time in the beauty of a built idea.

We really believe that architecture should deal with the site, the economy, and the culture where it's built in. We need to think global and act locally.

Good architecture, for us, is the one which uses the simplest materials, such as sunlight and shadows, matter and voidness, proportions and directions, with full respect of the economy of means, in order to express more meaningful ideas.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We believe that competitions are a way to measure and create a dialogue with worldwide professionals. We believe that it is important to show our reflections on architecture, our way of approaching it, and the meaning it has for us.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

We believe that getting involved in a competition within a discipline such as architecture is a unique occasion in which you can get in contact with the experimental dimension of architecture, in an exercise of expressive freedom, and without limiting creativity. The outcome of this freedom can be measured in the intellectual depth of the ideas and concept.