MASS lab

[MASS talk #5] What is lost in translation, when projects are translated into data?

As architecture shifts from drawings on paper to shared information models, BIM and digital collaboration are redefining how projects are imagined, coordinated and ultimately built.

But this conversation isn’t about software. It’s about authorship, collaboration, intuition and the hidden consequences of designing through shared models. It asks what architecture gains—and what it risks losing—when information becomes the framework for decision-making and creativity is required to operate within increasingly structured systems.

MASS TALK #5 - "What is Lost in Translation?" brings together Marta Campos, José Carlos Lino and Tânia Marques for a conversation on the changing nature of architectural practice and the questions that emerge when design becomes data.

📍 MASSLAB Porto (Free entry w/ limited capacity)
📅 Friday 3 July - 5:00 PM
🌍 The talk will be held in English

👉 Swipe to meet our speakers.
MASS Talks is a MASSLAB iniciative and is supported by República Portuguesa - Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das Artes .artes

We believe that is not coming for . It’s already inside it.
We’re HIRING an AI ARCHITECT who sees AI not as a tool, but as a driver of ideas. We want to know the curious minds, the unconventional thinkers, and the ones who dare to experiment.

If this role triggers you, we want to know all about it!
Apply via link on our bio.

[MASStive news] We’re thrilled to share that Vila Catarina Apartments has been nominated for the Building of the Year 2026 Awards by ArchDaily Brasil 🙌

This recognition means a great deal to us — it reflects not only this project, but also the journey we’ve been building over the past 10 years. We couldn’t be prouder.

To everyone who has been following and supporting us along the way, thank you. Let’s keep designing for a hopeful future.

[MASS talk #4] Cities are growing, densifying, and expanding. But what does it take to grow a city?

This is the question that sets the stage for the 4th MASS Talk, where guest speakers and Carlos Lobo will explore the forces, decisions and tensions that shape how cities evolve - from governance and regulation to finance, land, and the negotiation between public interest and private initiative.

More than a discussion about growth, this is a conversation about agency: who shapes the city, how priorities are defined, and what is at stake in the process of building it.

Step into MASSLAB Porto, where the conversation begins.

📍 MASSLAB Porto
📅 Friday, 20.03 at 5 PM
Free entry. Limited capacity.

👉 Swipe to meet our speakers.
Supported by República Portuguesa - Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das Artes .artes

ECHO* is a printed publication created by MASSLAB’s research-driven ecosystem, ECHO. It captures critical reflections, questions, and explorations from within our team, documenting the discussions and debates that shape our architectural practice.

If the first issue began with the question What is an Idea? — interrogating the metaphysical beginnings of architecture and that elusive moment when thought starts to take form — this second edition departs from another question: Where does architecture happen?

This is not a matter of location, but of activation. It shifts the focus from what architecture is to how it comes into being — from idea to practice. It looks at how architecture gains traction: in a sketch, a conversation, a conflict, or a code. It understands that architecture unfolds not only through drawings and buildings, but also through documents, negotiations, atmospheres, and acts of resistance — in all the invisible and often overlooked instances where the discipline materialises itself.

As Foucault reminds us, the role of the intellectual is not to deliver answers, but to pose the right questions at the right time. Someone who disturbs consensus, resists and insists on the complexity of the world. The intellectual operates at a distance: not outside society, but never fully at ease within it. This slight detachment, critical, attentive, uneasy, is also the place from which ECHO* writes.

Another year, another table filled with brilliant minds (and confetti!) 🎊

Our end-of-year dinner brought together the whole team to celebrate a year built on ambition, collaboration, resilience, and good humour.

At MASSLAB, it’s not just about the projects - it's about the people behind them. Thank you to every MASSter for another year of ideas, challenges, and shared moments that keep pushing us forward.

Merry X-MASS & a happy New Year! 🎄 ✨

[MASS talk #3] How to design the structure behind the idea?
Every creative act relies on a system — tools, workflows, strategies. But how do we structure creative practices without limiting them?

In this #3 edition of our MASS Talks, we invite two guests who operate around architecture — one at the moment of visualising what's to come, the other at capturing what has been built — to discuss the invisible systems that shape how we design, collaborate, and build.

SPEAKERS: (architectural photographer) & .works (creative agency)
📍 MASSLAB Porto
📅 Friday, 12.12 at 5PM
Free entry. Limited capacity.

👉 Swipe to meet our speakers.
Supported by Direção-Geral das Artes.

🚀 Bold people make bold ideas happen — and we are looking for them!
We’re creative minds, sharp thinkers, visual storytellers, and problem-solvers who bring ideas to life: from design to detail, from numbers to narratives.

Check all open positions in the link in our bio and be the next MASSter joining us!

[𝗠𝗔𝗦𝗦ive 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀] 💥 We are nominated for Studio of the Year at the Prémios Construir 2025!
And that’s not all - Porto Arts Club, one of our most recently built projects, is also nominated in two categories: “Best Rehabilitation Project (Architecture)” & “Best Retail and Services (Real Estate)”!

We design with ambition - but we never do it alone. To our team, clients, partners, and friends: this recognition is yours too 💗
Thank you for helping us design for a hopeful future 🚀

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