Zélia Alves (Lisbon 1979) founded ZA-Studio at the beginning of 2022 after almost 20 years of experience working for different award-winning practices in places such as the U.K., Spain and New Zealand.

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After finishing her studies in Architecture (2005, Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa), she left her hometown to discover different cultures, ways of living and thinking. It was always her belief that by experiencing different social and cultural contexts alongside the way societies understand and live cities and their associated environments; she will then be able to achieve better skills and tools to respond with sensibility and a responsible approach to both clients and architecture, an important field in the world well-being development.

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Through a conscious decision, she decided to be part of different teams, working on various project typologies. In this way, she created a better understanding of a variety of solutions in construction, programs and solving problems needed in every single project.

Learning to ask the right questions enables a solid foundation for future challenges with resilient and effective responses to different contexts and clients’ necessities.

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In the middle of 2018, she turned back to Portugal and started several work collaborations mainly related to local architecture and construction systems, spending the last four years doing management and coordination of construction sites and dealing with different projects and clients.