The man dreams, the work is born
Julião Pinto Leite, OODA architect
Those who have known him for longer and live closely with him call him Gião, a nickname that has stick since he was a child, since the time he couldn’t pronounce his own name correctly, and since the days he built little house with colorful LEGO pieces. Little did Gião know that the scale with which he played would expand to real and unimaginable dimensions, like the Magnolia and Camellia tower, the famous Flower Towers of the Nexity group, with 21 floors and 134 apartments, which appear on the horizon of Leça da Palmeira.
“I grew up abroad, in a less urban area, with a lot of space and gardens, and I liked building things outdoors, like huts”, he remembers. “Since I always knew how to draw, I knew that I wanted to be an architect, I just didn’t know that’s what the profession was called. What I wanted was to draw houses”, he laughs.
Born in Porto in 1983, he completed his degree at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto in 2007. After living two years in London, he returned to Porto in 2009. “When I arrived here, I worked for eight years in the architectural office of José Carlos Cruz, which gave me part of the knowledge I apply in my projects todays”, he says, adding that in 2018 he accepted an invitation from OODA (Oporto Office for Design and Architecture) to join their Porto-based office.
With more the 40 ongoing projects and more the 300,000 square meters under construction, it is one of the most prestigious and recognized Portuguese architecture companies in the world. They are responsible for the development of the Campanhã Slaughterhouse, in collaboration with the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and, more recently, they won the competition to design the new headquarters for Klan TV, a private television operator in Tirana, Albania. It will occupy an area of 10,000 square meters and will have a bold design reminiscent of a stock of old film reels.
Besides the architecture projects on his plate (such as the expansion of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, the construction of four residential blocks near Estádio do Dragão, and four houses in Leça da Palmeira, along the coast) drawing and illustration also hold a special place in Gião’s heart. Some of his works have already been exhibited throughout the country, in cities like Braga, Porto and Lisbon.
My work is a bit “eclectic”, I didn’t specialize in anything, not in watercolor or oil, because it has always been a hobby. I do what gives me the most pleasure, like drawing the people that are sitting next to me, in waiting rooms, on trains, or in airports. I always carry my sketchbook with me, and I have a particular preference for those drawings where I don’t even lift the pen, made with a single line, where I hardly even look at the paper”.
