Nuno Gusmão

P-06 Atelier

The main challenge in this project, was to find a meaningfull and comunicative texture to perforate the walls, we didn’t want to have perforations only in a decorative way, the concept we used…

What was the most difficult issue about weaving the environmental graphics into this building or the most unexpected challenge that may have influenced new design thoughts in this project?

The main challenge in this project, was to find a meaningfull and comunicative texture to perforate the walls, we didn’t want to have perforations only in a decorative way, the concept we used, ASCII (american standard code for information interchange) worked perfectly in that sense…, it communicates, and interact with the visitors of the museum and serves the pretended acoustic purposes. The collaboration between P-06 atelier and the architect Carrilho da Graça, in the project phase was the best way to have new design thoughts, the close relation between this two disciplines is a plus value in any project, it results in a better integration of the design in architecture. Our studio has developed many projects in this collaborative way for severall years with many other disciplines, such as engineers, landscape architects, artists, among others, all resulting in integrated and innovative solutions.

Did this project expand or evolve your role as a graphic designer in any way? In general, do you feel that the role of the graphics designer, and in turn environmental graphics themselves, is changing on current projects?

In all our projects approach we like to have no defined borders, everything is possible, we are allways trying to expand and evolve the project itself and of course our role, we like to define our work as “experimentalist” (always an attempt to expand or evolve in any way) . Environmental graphic design is definitely changing all around the globe and we try to give our small contribution.

How are your designs possible today in a way that it may not have been before and how have trends in technology, wayfinding, and graphics inspired new thought and solutions?

Nowadays, there is a growing need of communicating in all senses and environmental graphic design gives to spaces more than communication, it ads “sense of place”, so today, our role is being more recognized, and understood, allowing us to introduce new possibilities and solutions. Our conceptual attitude has always focused on “experimentalism”, we have been always trying to do things with new aestetics, new solutions, new materials and new technologies, so, being updated with new trends and new technological evolutions has always been a need for us. Things have always been changing and evolving as our conceptual attitude, our “tools” are changing all the time.

In the context of this project, how is your office and design process being influenced by current trends in academic curricula and incoming young designers? In turn, how are current projects and processes guiding the ongoing reformulation and development of academic curricula?

More Than the academic curricula (we’ve admited designers from different schools), the young designers are an important element in our office in motivating new thoughts and solutions, their inputs with our experience generate innovative solutions that in turn, influence the general perception of our role as professionals.