Biography
Mário Martins was born in Lagos, Algarve – Portugal in 1964, and graduated in 1988 from the Architecture Faculty of Lisbon Technical University. He worked for about one year in the architectural practice of Manuel Graça Dias and Egas José Vieira, and occasionally with the architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça. At the end of 1988 he decided to return to Lagos, setting up Oblíqua Arquitectos with the architect Vítor Lourenço, with whom he developed many projects before the partnership ended in 2000.Since then, through the company Mário Martins Atelier with Maria José Rio (his business partner and wife), he has continued to focus exclusively on architecture, assisted by his enormously dedicated and hard-working team.
With a contemporary style influenced by the place in which he mainly works – Algarve – his projects have undergone a natural process of evolving and maturing.
His work involves many types of projects, such as public facilities and private developments, new buildings or requalification: family homes, collective housing, tourist developments, restaurants, public facilities (sports, social, educational, recreational, etc), urban regeneration and urban planning (plans, studies and development).
At the same time he has been involved in various research projects, especially the “Colour in Lagos Architecture” project in the 1990s. Following comprehensive surveys carried out with the photographer João Mariano, he worked with the architect Vitor Lourenço on the renovation of facades in the historical centre of Lagos.
His work over the years has featured in national and international publications, at conferences and in audiovisual media (television and online).
To be noted among the books published are "Houses Mário Martins" (2011), "Mario Martins 1 + 1" (2012) which has a selection of houses designed by the practice, the biography "Mario Martins - Projects” (2015, Archinews) and most recent “Houses - an architectural journey” (2017).
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