Júlio Magalhães
Joaquim Guerra
João de Sousa Rodolfo
Founder of Traçado Regulador
He believes that loving what you do and being lucky are decisive factors in building a successful career. In addition to having had a long career as a university lecturer, João de Sousa Rodolfo has been an architect for over 30 years, an experience that has been an asset in his acknowledged professional practice. As the founder of Traçado Regulador, he tells us about the many projects he has in his portfolio, mainly residential, because although his CV contains projects in the most varied of areas, the choice has been dictated by what the market demands.
Your extensive professional background is well known. What role would you give experience as a factor in the professional practice of an architect?
The design of a building is a very complex reality, with the intervention of several specialties and a legal environment made up of hundreds of legal certificates. To all this we must add the site, the programme, the budget and creativity. The experience of daily practice lasting more than 30 years is a valuable asset in the correct management of the design process.
At a time of great activity in the sector and in an open market, what importance do you give to the quality of the project and how do you define it?
We must see the project as someone who sees surgery, that is to say, a means to reach a much more valuable end. Quality has an associated cost. Saving on this quality can have disastrous results.
«Quality has an associated cost. Saving on this quality can have disastrous results»
Your company, Traçado Regulador, has focused on the residential market. Why did you go for for this type of projects?
Traçado Regulador has projects from the most varied areas in its CV. Our choices are dictated by the demands of the market and choosing residential results from the moment of great dynamism that we are experiencing in this sector. The sectors in which we are currently developing most of our projects are houses and building rehabilitation.
Traçado Regulador currently has a vast array of projects in its portfolio. To which factors do you attribute the success of your company?
In order to succeed, you must really love what you do. This is how it is for us. Then you have to be lucky. My journey has been one paved with luck: I was fortunate enough to build a professional career as an architect and as a university teacher; to have people like my projects; to have had my work recognised and to be surrounded by a team of excellent people and excellent professionals, whose names I just have to mention: Alexandra Moreira, Paulo Mendes, Nuno Duarte, Tomás Amaral, Stefania Stellacci, Lara Oliveira, João Louro, Filipa Cruz and Gonçalo Torres.
Once the crisis in construction and all sectors associated with it has been overcome, what are the prospects for Traçado Regulador in the short and medium term?
In the short and medium term, Traçado Regulador has projects on its books that allow it to face the future with optimism. However, this sector is very vulnerable to financial crises. Thus, the path to sustainability lies in the expansion of the market, that is to say, in internationalisation.
