Lisbon Trip

What happens when an architecture studio swaps the drawing board for a few days in Lisbon?

It actually started quite casually. In the middle of a team meeting, our director floated a simple idea: what if we took the studio abroad?

But we were clear on one thing from the start, this wasn’t about ticking a CPD box in a beautiful city and calling it a success.

We wanted something that would stay with us… something that would shape how we think, how we design, and how we work together when we came back.

So, the ideas came in, the votes followed, and Lisbon quietly won us over.

And looking back, a few things really stayed with us.

You can’t truly understand a building through a screen. No matter how good the photos are, they miss something.

The scale, the texture, the way the light moves through a space at three in the afternoon… the way materials age and soften over time. Standing there, you notice things you didn’t even know to look for. You feel things you can’t Google. And somehow, that feeling finds its way back into your work.

Something changes when a team experiences things together. Walking the same streets, pausing at the same buildings, yet all noticing completely different details… then sitting down over dinner (and yes, a drink or two) to compare perspectives.

You start to build a shared language a collective way of seeing. And that quietly changes how connected the work feels back in the studio.

The best ideas tend to appear where you weren’t looking. Lisbon has this gentle rhythm to it the hills, the light, the way history just exists without trying too hard.

Being there opened up questions we hadn’t thought to ask. And that kind of thinking doesn’t happen when you’re rushing between emails. It happens when you’re present, curious, and surrounded by people who are just as open.

And maybe most importantly… the learning actually stayed with us. We didn’t go with a strict brief or a rigid plan. Just open eyes and good conversations.

The real value came afterwards, sitting together, slightly tired, unpacking what each of us had taken from the trip. That moment of reflection is what turned it into something meaningful. Something that feeds back into the work, into confidence, and into the team itself.

Because when people feel invested in, they show up differently. They grow. They bring more of themselves to what they do and that matters.

We came back with fresh ideas, a few perspectives we’re still gently unpicking weeks later… and, if I’m honest, a stronger, closer team than the one that boarded the plane.