Casa do Muro
A single-storey house in board-marked concrete and cork, set behind a low wall for a family arriving from London with two children and a very specific idea of quiet.
Lisbon · Cascais · Comporta · Tavira
Homes designed for people who don’t have time to get this wrong.
We are a nine-person studio in Lisbon. We take a plot, a budget and a brief — and give you back a finished house. One architect, one fee, one number to call.
A house is about two hundred decisions. They shouldn’t all be yours.
Most people who build in Portugal are doing it for the first time. You have a plot, a budget and a calendar. What you don’t have is the technical judgement to make two hundred decisions in twelve months — or the time to chase a contractor, a lawyer, a planner and a supply chain at the same time.
That is the job we take. One senior architect runs your project from the first site visit to the day the keys change hands. You get a plan, a price, a schedule and a weekly update. We make the calls — and we tell you clearly which ones have to be yours.
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One pair of hands
The architect you meet in week one is the architect who designs it, pushes the permits and walks the site. Nothing gets handed to someone else halfway through.
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A fixed fee
One price for the whole commission, agreed before a line is drawn. No hourly invoices, no late surprise, no “that wasn’t included”.
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Permits handled
Siting, construction licence, Câmara approvals, water, septic and utilities. We speak their language so you never have to learn it.
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A schedule you can trust
Weekly site reports, a programme with real dates, and a phone call the same afternoon if anything moves. No waiting three weeks for an answer.
Four stages, one continuous job.
Most studios hand you over to a project manager once the drawings are done. We don’t. The same team designs your house, prices it, builds it and stands behind it afterwards — which is why the weeks in the middle feel quiet.
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01
Brief and site
Weeks 1–2We meet you, walk the plot, read the sun, the wind and the regulations, and agree a budget band in writing before anything is drawn.
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02
Design and permits
Weeks 2–14Two or three plans, tested against your life and the site. Then construction drawings, engineering and a full licence application filed on your behalf.
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03
Build
Months 4–20We price the works, appoint the contractor, and visit every week. One photo report on Friday, one call if anything changes.
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04
Handover
Month 20 onwardSnagging list, keys, manuals, a maintenance calendar and our direct number for five years after you move in.
Three houses, three very different briefs.
Ask for the full portfolio 
Quinta do Vale
An old quinta brought back with its stone walls and 1911 ceilings, and a new timber wing added behind the pool where the original cellar used to be.
Casa Areia
A white house organised around one deep, shaded room. Built for a couple who wanted a place to eat, read and watch the sea — and not much else at all.
Three ways to work with us.
Most clients choose the full commission. The other two exist because plenty of people arrive with half the puzzle already solved — a drawing to check, a builder to supervise, a licence that needs filing.
Consultancy
€1,600 per day
Minimum two days · billed per day
For clients who already have a design and need it checked, costed and built properly.
- Review of an existing design or plan
- Site visits during construction
- Contractor quotes, compared line by line
- Permit applications, checked before filing
Design & permits
from €14,000
Fixed fee, defined after the site visit
You appoint and run the builder. We do everything up to the moment somebody starts digging.
- Survey, concept and technical design
- Engineering and full permit application
- Tender documents for three builders
- Contract advice up to signature
Most chosen
Full commission
from €32,000
Fixed fee · one contract · one team
One contract from the first sketch to the keys and five years afterwards. You are a client of the studio, not a referee between eleven companies.
- Everything in Design & permits
- Contractor appointed, priced and supervised
- Weekly site management and reporting
- Interior, joinery and landscape coordination
- Handover, snagging and five years of support
Every proposal is a fixed number, written down before we start — and it does not change unless you change the brief. Fees scale with size, access difficulty and finish level, never with how long the project takes.
Nine people in Lisbon. No hand-offs.
VÃO was founded in 2014 by two architects who had spent too long watching good houses get built badly. We stayed small on purpose: two partners, five architects, one site manager, one interior designer, one person who does nothing but keep the programme honest.
The person who designs your kitchen is in the same meeting as the person who signs your licence — and both of them will visit your site before the foundation is poured.
- Founded
- 2014, in a two-room office in Alcântara, Lisbon
- The team
- Nine people. Every project is run by a partner.
- Completed
- 62 houses delivered since 2014, from Comporta to Tavira
- Registration
- Ordem dos Arquitectos, no. A-14207
“We had already spoken to two other studios. VÃO was the only one that came to the site, walked the boundary with us and told us what would be a problem before we paid anyone. Everything after that felt almost boring.”
Marta & Rui — Quinta do Vale, Cascais
Questions we get every week.
Straight answers, with numbers in them. If yours isn’t here, ask us directly — we answer the same way we build: in writing, with a date on it.
Tell us about the plot.
Send the location, the budget you have in mind and what the house needs to do. If we can help, you will hear back within one working day with an honest yes or no — and a rough budget band attached.
- Studio Rua da Boavista 96, 1200-068 Lisboa, Portugal
- Email studio@vao.pt
- Phone +351 213 456 789
- Visits Tuesday–Thursday, 10:00–17:00, by appointment
No obligation and no discovery call unless we both want one. If the plot, the budget or the timing doesn’t work, we will say so in writing within a week.
VÃO Arquitectura
Architecture for people with better things to do. Private homes across Portugal, designed, built and handed over in full.
Studio
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© 2026 VÃO Arquitectura Lda. Registered with the Ordem dos Arquitectos, no. A-14207.
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