Filipa Frois Almeida and Hugo Reis are the founders of FAHR 021.3. A creative and collaborative studio, which seeks to address new working methods and provoke emotions in people through art and architecture.
FAHR is a company based in Porto, where architectural approaches on public spaces are discussed. It all started in 2011, when the duo worked as architects at an international office in Berlin. According to them, at the time, “there was a need to do something for ourselves, we signed up for an urban art street festival and it was our first experience as FAHR.”
Filipa and Hugo explained that the purpose of the projects is not to manipulate emotions, feelings or reactions but rather to “give our point of view because we like to explore the doubts, the fears, the difference of scale between things and this approach ends up causing reactions of strangeness and provocation in people.”
Since then, FAHR has developed several projects, each one of them being approached as a brand new challenge. “Metamorfose is undoubtedly our most recent business card and is the manifesto for the city, the ruin in the city, the empty space, the scenic element in the city and how this kind of temporary interventions are capable of incorporating other kinds of visions about public space.”
FAHR won three international awards: one for Architecture, one for the International Design Award in Taipei with the Balões de S.João and recently won the “Public Art Competition, National Convention And Exhibition Center (Nangang Exhibition Hall Expansion)” in Taiwan, with the NAPPE intervention.
With projects built in Berlin, Italy, Mexico, internationalization remains in the vision and ambition of the company. However, the duo exalted the importance of “keeping our roots and maintaining our headquarters here in Porto because it is our heart, who were are, our blood and it is good for us to represent Porto.”
Filipa and Hugo believe that the city of Porto “has the right balance to be, to grow, have personal projects while having a social life, that is very important to feed these small projects that are evolving. It is noticed that there is a great dynamic in terms of people investing in their own ideas and new concepts.”
Get to know more about FAHR 021.3 here
