Manuel Aires Mateus

Manuel Aires Mateus was born in Lisbon in 1963 and graduated from Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon in 1986. He started collaborating with the architect Gonçalo Byrne in 1983 and started developing projects with his brother, Francisco, in 1988. The office Aires Mateus was then established independently by the two brothers although it was housed in Gonçalo Byrne’s studio in the first years. The increasing scale of work made them establish a larger and autonomous space to fulfill the demands. Since then the scale and the number of projects have been prolific, resulting in several national and international awards. The visibility of their work has led to them holding numerous lecturer and instructor positions at several institutions. Among these are Harvard GSD, the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, as well as several others in Portugal. The firm now spans two studios, both based in Lisbon, and extends to several partnerships with local studios for international work. His work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2010 and 2016, along with being awarded the Premios Enor Award in 2006, the Pessoa Prize in 2017 and the Wallpaper Design Award in 2018.  www.airesmateus.com