Architecture shaped by light, mass and time.
Monolith is an architecture and interiors studio in Porto. We design houses, cultural buildings and retreats that settle into their landscape and get better with age.
Practice
Est. 2011, Porto
Focus
Residential & Cultural
Reach
Portugal & Spain
Casa Duna, Comporta
Completed 2025
Every project begins on site, with the ground, the light and the people who will live there. Form comes last, and only when it has earned its place.
Material honesty
Concrete, stone, timber and lime, left to show how they were made and allowed to weather.
Light first
We study the sun path before the plan, so every room receives the light its use deserves.
Built to stay
Fewer, better decisions. Buildings that are simple to maintain and hard to outgrow.
What we do
One small team, from first sketch to the last fitting. We stay with each project through construction.
01
Architecture
New houses, housing and public buildings, designed from site study to construction drawings.
02
Interiors
Rooms, joinery and lighting that continue the logic of the building rather than decorate it.
03
Restoration
Careful work on old structures, keeping what can stay and adding only what is needed.
04
Landscape
Gardens, courtyards and terraces planned together with the building from the first day.
Interiors that continue the building
We design joinery, lighting and furniture as part of the architecture. The same materials run from the facade to the kitchen shelf, so a house reads as one thing.
Recognition
2025
Prémio Secil de Arquitectura
Kiln Gallery
2024
Iberian Housing Award, shortlist
Patio Row
2024
Dezeen Awards, House of the Year
Ridge House
2023
World Architecture Festival, finalist
Pine Retreat
2022
FAD Award, Interiors
Casa Lume
“They listened for months before drawing a line. The house they gave us feels like it was always on that hill.”
Inês & Tomás Carvalho
Clients, Ridge House