How is it possible to maximize livability in small spaces? What design decisions contribute to functionality and the fulfillment of the inhabitants' essential needs? Over the past decade, small-scale architecture has gained prominence in the quest to find new ways of living in connection with nature and in pursuit of relative self-sufficiency, among other reasons. From minimal homes or tree houses to fine carpentry solutions and sculptures, the Portuguese design studio Madeiguincho is dedicated to developing timber-based projects with the aim of promoting knowledge of wood craftsmanship as both a raw material and a building medium.
Bringing together three generations of expertise in a workshop-carpentry space, Madeiguincho emerged around 1990 as the name for a family-run woodworking business dedicated to the art and technique of cabinetry. Based in Portugal, the studio aims to develop a space for experimentation with utmost respect for the purity of wood, seeking to deliver high-quality and durable solutions. Combining both ancestral and contemporary knowledge and techniques, its executive director Gonçalo Marrote shows a strong influence of the construction arts.
