We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Nuno Montenegro ("NM").

Nuno Montenegro's office boast a team that is able to cater for the full range of technical project planning specialties, from urban planning to design of public and private developments. The set of partnerships it has entered into and its drive to foster experimental research are the two cornerstones behind its concept. Montenegro's team is able to provide a design-oriented development concept, hands-on benefit of a small dynamic company, with a well-built network of knowledge connectors, and a technological lead and design expertise of a larger one. In its more than 10 years of design practice the company has earned a reputation for excellence in the master planning and the design of distinctive residential, educational, laboratory facilities, recreational, retail and mixed-use projects. The approach to projects is collaborative both within the practice itself and in its relation with clients, consultants among others. These lines of collaboration are established and maintained right through to completion of a project, allowing projects, from inception, to be considered holistically - from the aesthetic dimensions through to questions regarding environment, structural integrity and issues related to cost, program and value.

Nuno Montenegro Designs

We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Nuno Montenegro.

Designer Interview of Nuno Montenegro:

DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?

NM : My background is relatively diversified. Apart from architecture, I also made inroads in Film, Urban Planning, and Computer Science. My work reflects this mix of art and techniques, in a sort of internal debate, with its origin in the very remote past of my life.

DI: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?

NM : My team that is able to cater for the full range of technical project planning specialties, from urban planning to design of public and private developments. The set of partnerships and its drive to foster experimental research are the two cornerstones behind our concept. We provide a design-oriented development concept, hands-on benefit of a small dynamic company, with a well-built network of knowledge connectors, and a technological lead and design expertise of a larger one. In its more than 10 years of design practice my company has earned a reputation for excellence in the master planning and the design of distinctive residential, educational, laboratory facilities, recreational, retail and mixed-use projects. The approach to projects is collaborative both within the practice itself and in relation with our clients, consultants among others. These lines of collaboration are established and maintained right through to completion of a project, allowing projects, from inception, to be considered holistically - from the aesthetic dimensions through to questions regarding environment, structural integrity and issues related to cost, program and value.

DI: What is "design" for you?

NM : The design is kind of mindset. It is the object of man's culture, which is intended to serve him as best as possible. It's the primordium of inspiration and beauty that protrudes into materiality.

DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?

NM : I have no limits to this vocation, for that will.

DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?

NM : Too many to define the most favourite. We can find perfection in every corner of our space.

DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?

NM : An industrial complex.

DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?

NM : Everything made by hand with care.

DI: When do you feel the most creative?

NM : When I am more depressed or unhappy.

DI: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?

NM : Performance and the feeling of surprise and beauty at the same time.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?

NM : Anxiety and desire.

DI: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?

NM : Just did my job.

DI: What makes a design successful?

NM : If it causes strong emotions in people.

DI: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?

NM : The same.

DI: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?

NM : A designer should work for the society and not for himself. His work should be dedicated to improving the quality of life of human beings, with the use of the less resources he can.

DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?

NM : Performance.