Book presentation Some Kind of Romance, Any Kind of Existence (OODA / Hatje Cantz, 2026)
A conversation around the book, with the participation of OODA, Ana Castanho, João Castro, Manuel Aires Mateus, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Nuno Melo Sousa and Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Some Kind of Romance, Any Kind of Existence is a bifurcated journey through fifteen years of the architecture practice OODA, designed as a “dream state” inner dialogue between Some Kind of Romance and Any Kind of Existence: mirrored reflections of past and future projects that reflects the practice’s work and exploring path from Porto to the world. Read together, these two parts are less about buildings than about a way of being in the world, offering an open narrative where architecture is presented as if in a chronicle, a journal. In Albania, it traces a transformative engagement with urban regeneration and identity reconstruction in a context of rapid urban change. In Portugal, it explores continuity through both rehabilitation and new construction, treating time, heritage, and landscape as active materials. Together, these two dimensions reveal a practice shaped by persistence and risk, belonging and transformation, grounded in place yet open to reinvention.
At the heart of the book is a novel written four-handed by OODA and the writer Ana Castanho, which moves through the studio's works without really speaking of architecture, leaving it as a backdrop. Around it, in place of critical essays, are gathered letters from nearly thirty authors close to the studio, among them Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Manuel Aires Mateus, Carme Pigem, Kengo Kuma, Jeanne Gang and Benedetta Tagliabue.
Conversation
Following the presentation there will be a conversation in the same spirit as the texts: free, around the ways of seeing and making architecture. With the participation of Manuel Aires Mateus, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Nuno Melo Sousa and Eduardo Souto de Moura, all authors of texts in the book, and OODA, Ana Castanho and João Castro.
Publication details
Publisher: OODA
Editorial direction: Diogo Brito
Project coordination: Marina RodriguesTexts: Ana Castanho
Contributions: Manuel Aires Mateus, Sofia Albrigo, Roberto Bannura, Pablo Bofill, Diogo Brito, Pedro Campos Costa, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Sam Chermayeff, Thomas Coldefy, Julien De Smedt, Vladimir Djurovic, Jaime Font, Mikkel Frost, Jeanne Gang, Anton Garcia-Abril, Manuelle Gautrand, Steven Holl, João Jesus, Kengo Kuma, Flora Lee, Mark Lee, Francisco Lencastre, Nuno Melo Sousa, Chad Oppenheim, Carme Pigem, Julião Pinto Leite, Michel Rojkind, Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Benedetta Tagliabue, Amin Taha, Rita Topa, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas
Design: The Royal Studio
Hatje Cantz, June 2026. 476 pages, English edition
Related
(Lisboa, 1963)
Manuel Aires Mateus nasceu em Lisboa em 1963. Licenciou-se pela Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa em 1986 e fundou, em 1988, o atelier Aires Mateus com Francisco Aires Mateus. Leciona desde 1998 na Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa e desde 2001 na Academia de Arquitetura de Mendrísio, tendo colaborado com a Graduate School of Design de Harvard, a Cornell University e as escolas de arquitetura de Oslo, Liubliana e Navarra. O atelier, hoje com cerca de cinquenta colaboradores, participou cinco vezes na Bienal de Arquitetura de Veneza. Entre novembro de 2025 e abril de 2026 apresentou a exposição Beleza apesar de tudo na Ala Álvaro Siza do Museu de Serralves. O seu trabalho tem tido amplo reconhecimento internacional, distinguido com os Prémios AIT, Valmor, Secil, FAD e da Bienal Iberoamericana de Arquitetura.
Manuel Aires Mateus diplomou-se pela Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa em 1986. Já em 1983 começara a colaborar com Gonçalo Byrne, antes de em 1988 estabelecer o seu próprio gabinete de arquitetura com o seu irmão Francisco Aires Mateus. Foi professor visitante em diversas instituições de ensino da arquitetura um pouco por todo o mundo e atualmente é professor na Universidade Lusíada em Lisboa (desde 1997) e na Accademia di Architettura de Mendrisio (desde 2001). Foi Prémio Pessoa em 2017.