FPOETICS studio

^about

FPOETICS® is a laboratory space founded in 2013 in Porto (Portugal) by Helder Casal Ribeiro, dedicated to multidisciplinary experimentation, consisting of multiple platforms and lines of intervention, action and research, open to the informal and rotational participation of young professionals and students from architecture or other complementary artistic areas.

FPOETICS integrates the craft of architecture from the beginning. In activity since 1992, Helder Casal Ribeiro’s career intersects design practice with teaching and research in architecture. His curriculum integrates projects of different scales and nature, including heritage/furbishing, namely: single, collective and social housing, public buildings and urban projects.

FPOETICS commits its practice to a research-based approach, supported by academic activity. The studio aspires to create a design-led architecture that is contemporary in its expression, nevertheless rooted in tradition, set on bringing the emotional condition of “beauty” in the most linear and extensive sense of the term.

Sílvia Ramos integrates FPOETICS studio as main partner, in 2017.

In 2018, FPOETICS extended its practice to Iran.

FPOETICS´ main goals, as a pluri-disciplinary laboratorial space, are to explore the intuitive creative process, questioning its limits, different phases/stages and themes that inform the notions of object, form or even of artistic expression, in the understanding and appropriation of the architectural space. The main lines of intervention are understood as platforms to reduce the invisible more than produce the visible i.e. not to represent reality but to expose it.

Factual poetics Deepens to synthesis of research and design practices through architectural commissions and studies, with pluridisciplinary teams.

Fighting poetics Dedicated to the synthesis of research and design practices in response to international architecture competitions, with multidisciplinary teams, integrating young professionals and students.

Fahrenheit poetics Promotes artistic appropriation of a building as a skeleton through an intervention related to a performative action based on an interpretative occupation of a building under construction in order to awaken new readings and meanings.

Fluorescent poetics Opens a plural discourse set on themes correlated to readings on interdisciplinary research – limits and boundaries – through debates and conversations.

Fertile poetics Deepens the state of the art, through culture and travel impression sessions, where photography is the main instrument of communication and (re)interpretation.

Furious poetics Endorses the theme of composition/narrative in the meaning of architectural artefact form/space and intent/atmosphere, within notions of measure, proportion and matter, in creative labs and thematic workshops.

F***poetics Explores the condition of place through dialogues between music, visual arts and architectural space – place and reference – in showcases and pop-ups.

Furtive poetics Expands on notions and lines of thought on artistic work process and inception criteria/themes – practice, craft and form – through open talks and performative dialogues.

Flying poetics Instigates the synthesis of research and design practices through multidisciplinary exhibition design and curatorship, integrating young/emerging artists.

Fallen poetics Embraces the artistic appropriation of a forgotten structure as a means to opens fresh readings on meaning and significance, in order to value its dormant hidden dimension – measure, proportion and scale.

Flawless poetics Promotes the artistic appropriation of a building as an anatomy through an intervention related to a performative action based on an interpretative occupation of a building under construction in order to awaken new readings and meanings.

Fractal poetics Explores the synthesis of research and design practices framed by academic research, final course thesis, which pursue different intakes on the craft of architecture and its contemporary concerns, discourses and narratives.

^people

Helder Casal Ribeiro

Founder of FPOETICS (Porto), in 2013, as main architect, scientific and pedagogic coordinator of diverse areas of research and social/artistic interventions.

Graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, in 1992, and PHD in Architecture, in 2013. Develops professional activity continuously, since 1992, in association with several architects in areas such as: private housing, social housing, public buildings, heritage/urban rehabilitation and urban projects.

Lectures Design Studio at Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto since 1999, and is currently an Auxiliary Professor with courses in the Master Degree in Architecture (MIARQ) and in the Doctorate Program in Architecture (PDA).

Visiting Professor in Politecnico di Milano at Scuola di Architettura e Società – Polo Territoriale di Mantova, 2014 / 2016, in the “Master of Science in Architecture and Preservation”, and since 2017, at Scuola di Architettura Urbanistica Ingegneria delle Costruzioni – Campus Leonardo, in the Doctorate Program “Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering”.

Co-founder of curatorial collective “MATTER. the white conferences”. Researcher at the Study Centre of Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) in group “Atlas da Casa” with “multi-family dwelling: theory, design, didactics” and “Transference and Identity” projects, where he currently researches the modern condition and its reflexes in the contemporary architectural scene. Currently associated to the research project “SIZA baroque“, funded by public agency that supports scientific research in Portugal (FCT) ref: SIZA/CPT/0021/2019 and IR in the european project “UpGranT: Updating the Grand Tour. Memory and Invention of the European Built Environment“, funded by the European Nation, programme Erasmus+, actionKA220-HED – Cooperation partnerships in higher education, ref: 2023-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000158377.

Sílvia Ramos

Architect, graduated and PhD from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in 2008 and 2017, Invited Auxiliar Professor at FAUP since 2019 and Researcher at Study Centre of Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU-FAUP) since 2013, currently associated to the funded projects “Siza baroque” and “UpGranT”.

Since her graduation, has pursued a professional practice with other architects with particular note to the collaboration with Francisco Barata Fernandes and Helder Casal Ribeiro, in the design of public buildings, especially schools and cultural centres, involving new construction and rehabilitation.

In 2011/12, joined the PhD in Architecture (PDA-FAUP). From 2013 to 2017, received a research fellowship of the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Between 2013 and 2015, is an Assistant in the Integrated Masters’ degree in Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (MIARQ-FAUP).

In 2017, integrates FPOETICS studio as main partner.

Hosein Roasaei

Architect, Bachelor Degree in Architectural Engineering by Iran University of Science and Technology, in 2013, and Master in Architecture and Preservation by Politecnico di Milano_ Mantova Campus, in 2015.

In 2015, moved to Porto, attending Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) for almost a year. During this time he studied Portuguese architecture, worked as a researcher in CEAU (The Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism), and collaborated with Helder Casal Ribeiro_Fpoetics.

In 2016, moved to Milan to attend the PhD programme offered by DABC. Along with PhD related activities, has taught architectural design both as tutor in architectural design workshops (FAUP Porto, Contemporary Architects’ Association of Tehran) and as a teaching assistant in the Design Studio held by C. Pallini, also supervising graduation theses.

In 2018, integrates FPOETICS studio as partner.

Mahsa Mogherri

Architect, Bachelor Degree in Architectural Engineering by Shahid Rajaee university in 2015, and Master degree in landscape Architecture by Tarbiat Modares University in 2018.

In 2015, she persued her profession as junior architect at Arel office. In 2018, she joined Emarat office in place of senior architect, broadening her knowledge in building construction techniques. In 2025, she co-founded her own office (Moro Architecture Studio) together with Hosein Roasaei.

In 2025, integrates FPOETICS studio as partner.