40%
of the European Union's energy consumption is attributable to buildings. Greenhouse gas emissions from the building stock account for 36% of the total.
European Commission · 2024
Shaping thehorizonof architecture
Technology, innovation and artificial intelligence in the service of design
Manifesto
Architecture is changing faster than at any point in the last fifty years. Not out of fashion — out of law, climate and computing power.
Decisions once made on accumulated experience are now made with simulation. The energy performance of a building has stopped being a check at the end of the process and become a condition of the initial design. The three-dimensional model has stopped being a representation of the project and become the project itself.
None of this replaces the designer's judgement. The tool does not decide where the light comes in, nor why a staircase belongs in one place and not another. What technology does is clear away the work that should never have taken an architect's time — and give that time back to what only an architect can do.
That is why we look at what is coming without anxiety. The dates are already set. The work is to get there before them.
Context
What the numbers say
Five indicators that explain why the transformation of the sector is not an editorial choice.
10–20%
is the estimated saving in capital expenditure when architecture, engineering and construction processes are digitalised.
Manual BIM para o Setor Público Europeu, cited in Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 89/2026 (Council of Ministers Resolution) · 2026
74%
of architecture practices already use artificial intelligence in design, against 59% the year before and 41% in 2024.
RIBA Artificial Intelligence Report · 2026
6 years
is the implementation period of PortugalBIM, the national strategy that plans to train 3,000 professionals in the sector and roll the methodology out to 50 municipalities a year.
Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 89/2026 · 2026
17%
is the share of architects who think their projects got better because of AI. Adoption is almost universal; the gain in quality is not.
RIBA Artificial Intelligence Report · 2026
Timeline
The dates are already set
The European and Portuguese regulatory framework sets out precisely what becomes mandatory and when. To design today without accounting for these dates is to hand the client a building that is out of date the day it is born.
29 May 2026
Deadline for transposing EPBD IV
Portugal must transpose the energy performance of buildings directive into national law, with a revision of the energy certification system and the introduction of the Renovation Passport.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275 · Diretiva (UE) 2024/1275
1 January 2028
Public buildings with zero emissions
All new buildings owned by public bodies must meet the Zero Emission Building standard.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275
2028
Life-cycle assessment becomes mandatory
Calculating global warming potential over the life cycle becomes a requirement for new buildings over 1,000 m², extending to all new buildings in 2030.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275
1 January 2030
BIM becomes mandatory in architectural design
Architectural projects covered by the Regime Jurídico da Urbanização e da Edificação (the planning and building legal regime) must be modelled using the BIM methodology. It stops being a competitive advantage and becomes a condition of planning permission.
Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024, artigo 17.º (Simplex Urbanístico) · Decree-Law 10/2024
1 January 2030
All new buildings with zero emissions
The Zero Emission Building requirement extends to all new construction. In the residential stock, primary energy consumption must fall by at least 16% against the baseline.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275
2035
A 20 to 22% reduction in the residential stock
Second interim target for reducing primary energy consumption in residential buildings.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275
2050
A carbon-neutral building stock
The zero-emission requirement extends to the whole of Europe's existing building stock, not only to new construction.
Directive (EU) 2024/1275
Technology
Tools that change the result, not just the method
Technology comes in where it improves design decisions and communication with the client — not as a marketing argument.
01
BIM — Building Information Modelling
Integrated three-dimensional modelling, early clash detection and real-time coordination of the engineering disciplines, before they reach site.
02
Visualisation
Photorealistic rendering and immersive visualisation, so the client understands the project before it exists.
03
Augmented and virtual reality
Walking the building at full scale during design, while changes are still cheap.
04
Cloud collaboration
Centralised document management and real-time access for the team, the client and outside partners.
Artificial intelligence
Four fronts, one criterion
The question is not where artificial intelligence can be used — it is where using it actually improves the project or frees up time for the person designing it. Outside that, it is noise.
Process
Internal and document management
The administrative work of an architecture practice takes up time that produces no design. It is the first front where automation pays off, because mistakes are cheap and the gain is immediate.
- Automatic classification and indexing of the project archive
- Data extraction from specifications and bills of quantities
- Assisted drafting of technical correspondence and site reports
Client
Communication and follow-up
An architecture client usually lives with too little information between meetings. Technology can shorten that silence without adding to the load on the team.
- Quick answers to routine questions about the state of the process
- Periodic progress summaries generated from the project record
- A tracking portal with access to drawings and the programme
Production
Support for design decisions
This is where AI is both most promising and most overrated. It is there to widen the field of options at concept stage and to test performance before there is a definitive drawing — not to choose.
- Generating massing variants at preliminary design stage
- Simulation of thermal behaviour and daylighting
- Assisted optimisation of structural solutions and openings
Regulatory
Reading the regulations
A project in Portugal crosses the plano diretor municipal (the municipal master plan), the general building regulations, accessibility rules, fire safety and energy requirements. Reading all of it is slow and the cost of missing one provision is high.
- Assisted reading of PDM and municipal regulations
- Preliminary compliance checking at design stage
- Tracking regulatory changes that apply to open applications
Limits
Where we draw the line
A position on technology that only lists capabilities is not a position. These are the boundaries we do not cross.
In deciding the concept
The idea of a project answers to a place, a brief and a person. No model has access to all three at once.
In technical sign-off
Nothing leaves this practice without human checking by the person who signs it. Professional responsibility cannot be delegated to a tool.
In the relationship with the client
Automation is there to answer routine questions faster. The conversations that matter are still with people.
In representing what does not exist
A generated image that promises the client a building the project will not deliver is a problem of honesty, not of technology.
In 2026, 74% of architecture practices were using artificial intelligence. Only 17% thought their projects had improved because of it. — RIBA Artificial Intelligence Report, 2026
Alignment
Where we already are
The transformation of the sector has concrete institutional backing in Portugal and in Europe. We do not work outside it.
PortugalBIM
Estratégia Nacional para a Implementação da Metodologia BIM (National BIM Implementation Strategy) · Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 89/2026, coordinated by IMPIC
Adopting BIM in architectural design gets ahead of the legal deadline of 1 January 2030.
EN ISO 19650
European standard series for information management in BIM · Technical Committee CT 197 of the Instituto Português da Qualidade (the Portuguese quality institute)
It is the reference for organising and sharing information between designers, clients and contractors.
IA nas PMEs — PRR
Funding line of the Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan) · funded by the European Union, NextGenerationEU
It covers the practice's investment in capability and in taking up artificial intelligence tools.
Want to be part of this horizon?
We are looking for people who want to work with these tools without losing sight of what they are for.