In the year it celebrates 30 years, Contacto Atlântico has passed a rare milestone in Portuguese architecture: more than one million square metres designed, 1,001,151.55 m² to be exact. Founded by architect André Caiado, this leading architecture studio in Portugal has, over three decades, designed far more than buildings. It has shaped ways of living, moving, working and experiencing the city, to the point where its journey now merges with entire parts of contemporary Portuguese cities.
How much is one million square metres?
It is a scale that is hard to imagine until it is translated into the language of cities themselves. One million square metres is an area larger than two Vaticans, around half of Monaco, almost 28 Praça do Comércio squares, roughly 10 Avenida da Liberdade avenues, or approximately 4 Eduardo VII Parks. These are restored buildings, reinvented blocks, hotels, homes, shops and public facilities that thousands of people pass through every day, often without knowing they are crossing and living the architecture of Contacto Atlântico.
The projects that define Contacto Atlântico’s legacy
These numbers tell only part of the story. Over three decades, the studio has helped turn heritage into living city, historic buildings into new meeting places, and urban spaces into contemporary experiences. From the Zara Rossio to the Diário de Notícias building, from Avenida da Liberdade 193 to Casa Cobre, Contacto Atlântico speaks a language of its own, built on the relationship between architecture, time, memory and permanence.
With projects in Lisbon, Cascais, Oeiras, Sintra, Setúbal, Comporta, the Algarve and Madeira, as well as in cities such as London, Madrid, Budapest, São Paulo and Johannesburg, the studio, with offices in Estoril and São Paulo, has consolidated a Portuguese practice with wide international reach. Along the way, it has worked across fields as diverse as housing, hospitality, retail, healthcare, public facilities and urban restoration.
Contacto Atlântico: A benchmark in urban restoration
Restoration is today one of the studio’s most recognised pillars. Urban restoration means recovering existing buildings and returning them to the city with new uses, preserving their identity rather than replacing it. According to the public records analysed, since 2019 no other Portuguese studio brings together more of its own award-winning or distinguished urban restoration projects, led by three emblematic interventions.
The Zara Rossio, one of the largest urban regeneration operations in Lisbon’s Baixa and now home to the world’s second-largest Zara store, the intervention in the Diário de Notícias building, and the Avenida da Liberdade 193 project are clear examples of how a Lisbon architect can transform historic buildings into spaces ready for the present, without erasing their memory.
A story of continuity between generations
Contacto Atlântico’s legacy is also a story of continuity. The founder’s vision, built on the relationship between city, heritage, human scale and durability, has been joined since 2020 by the work of João Caiado, who represents a new generation connected to the studio, its team and its built work.
“In 30 years, Contacto Atlântico has passed one million square metres designed, a scale larger than two Vaticans, built project by project across city, heritage, housing, hospitality, retail, healthcare and spaces of great public impact. Today, we are not only celebrating time. We are celebrating scale, legacy, a transformed city and a family continuity that carries Contacto Atlântico into the future,” says architect André Caiado, founder of the studio.
After three decades, there are works of architecture that stop being just buildings and become part of the way a city recognises itself. Contacto Atlântico’s legacy is not measured in square metres alone. It is measured in the cities it has helped to transform.
This milestone was highlighted in Valor Magazine. Learn more about Contacto Atlântico and explore our projects.