Some Kind of Romance, Any Kind of Existence is a monograph on fifteen years of work by OODA, the architecture practice founded in Porto in 2010. Published by Hatje Cantz in 2026, it follows the studio through its projects in Portugal and Albania and reads them through memory, identity, and change. The book is set out in two mirrored parts, conceived as a “dream state” dialogue between past and future projects, with a novel at its centre and almost thirty letters from fellow architects gathered around it.
The two parts carry the two halves of the title. Any Kind of Existence looks at persistence and care, at an architecture shaped by time, where heritage is treated as a living, layered condition. Some Kind of Romance turns to the experience of arriving in a place in transformation and finding a sense of belonging there. Across both, the book treats architecture as a chronicle of experiences as well as of buildings, and follows OODA from Porto to its work abroad.
In Albania, where cities have changed quickly, OODA’s projects deal with urban regeneration and the rebuilding of identity. Among them are The Concave, a 63-room hotel shaped by the contours of Llamani Beach, and Faith Park, a 2025 competition concept for a sanctuary, museum and wellness complex at Petrelë, designed with Nuno Melo Sousa and Vladimir Djurovic. In Portugal, the studio works through rehabilitation and new construction, and time, heritage, and landscape become materials in their own right. Fernando Guerra’s photographs in the book cover six of these projects: Fábrica de Conservas, a residential and mixed-use project in Matosinhos; CAM Gulbenkian in Lisbon, where OODA worked with Kengo Kuma & Associates and Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture on the renovation and extension of the modern art centre first completed by Leslie Martin in 1983, now sheltered by a curved canopy inspired by the Japanese engawa; Hoso, a 9,350-square-metre student residence on the university campus in Porto built from prefabricated concrete; Torre 15 in Leça da Palmeira, 12,000 square metres of apartments and four duplex penthouses completed in 2023; Miramar Tower in Porto, finished in 2024, where each dwelling has its own terrace and garden; and Casa Oeiras, a 350-square-metre house organised around a patio on a sloping plot. The studio’s work in Porto also includes Lóios, a 2013 renovation on Largo dos Lóios that keeps the inherited envelope, and FM127, a 49,000-square-metre mixed-use block now under construction. The same concerns return in both countries: persistence, risk, belonging, and transformation.
The novel at the centre of the book, written by Ana Castanho and edited by OODA, moves through the studio’s projects and leaves the architecture in the background. The book’s other voices come in personal letters from almost thirty architects and close collaborators, among them Manuel Aires Mateus, Álvaro Siza, Eduardo Souto de Moura, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Carme Pigem, Kengo Kuma, Steven Holl, Jeanne Gang, Manuelle Gautrand, and Benedetta Tagliabue. In place of critical essays that read the work from outside, the letters record the relationships and encounters that have shaped the practice.
The book was presented on 20 October 2026 in the auditorium of the Serralves Museum in Porto, with a conversation between João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Nuno Melo Sousa, Eduardo Souto de Moura, OODA, Ana Castanho, and João Castro on different ways of seeing and making architecture.
The English edition runs to 476 pages in a 140 by 220 millimetre format and is published by OODA in association with Hatje Cantz. Diogo Brito directed the editorial work and Marina Rodrigues coordinated the project. The graphic design is by The Royal Studio. OODA, short for Oporto Office for Design and Architecture, was founded in 2010 by Diogo Brito and Rodrigo Vilas-Boas; Francisco Lencastre joined in 2011, and João Jesus and Julião Pinto Leite in 2018, bringing the partnership to five. The studio now counts more than sixty architects of over ten nationalities across offices in Porto, Lisbon, and Tirana.
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