About us

MVCC is an architecture and urban design practice based in Porto, Portugal. It is located, since 2001, in a 19th century building at 209, Boavista Avenue. In 1979 , Mercês Vieira and Camilo Cortesão created the architecture practice that was to become MVCC, of which they are founding partners.

Practice

At MVCC, we study the site, the existing buildings and spaces and their capacity for transformation, and for incorporating new forms and new uses, we interpret the program and the different ways of achieving it, we work together with the consultants, the clients, the builders and the community, we use the available technology to select building materials, construction systems, equipment and technical solutions, we promote sustainability and energy efficiency as a project methodology and as a pedagogical approach, we use all the design and communication possibilities in order to make the project widely understandable.

MVCC has built a cohesive and diversified project team, highly experienced in working together and able to take in new collaborators and international trainees. The differentiated backgrounds within the team members facilitate the relationship with external consultants and builders and enable our practice to coordinate increasingly complex projects.

MVCC works in multidisciplinary partnerships that allow us to expand its intervention to all types and scales of the territory transformation. The attention to detail and the importance given to the construction in each project is a distinctive feature of MVCC’s work methodology, in which the site is as important as the office. Working in different geographic and cultural contexts and with different technical frameworks and legal standards has increased MVCC’s ability to take on new challenges in new places.

All members of the project team are fluent in Portuguese and English, while many are also proficient in French, Italian and Spanish. MVCC uses state-of-the-art computer equipment, Bentley Systems MicroStation CAD, Grafisoft ArchiCad BIM and specific software for 3D modelling, graphic design and communication. MVCC quality management system is certified according to NP EN ISO 9001.

Over the years, our work has been consistently selected for exhibitions and published, both at home and abroad. Our house, our garden and the daily lunch we have together are the main elements of our team building. Understanding the sites, debating ideas, hand drawing and model making have been and will continue to be the fundamental instruments of MVCC’s project methodology.