Materials and products made in Portugal
CDC Craft Design Construction is a supplier of materials and products made in Portugal, including cork flooring, cork products, textiles, Viroc Cement Bonded Particle Board, and Hydraulic Cement tiles. Also furniture and lighting by architects Álvaro Siza Vieria and Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Portugal is a country with a wealth of natural materials that have helped to shape the country’s artisan, cultural and manufacturing heritage. This has inspired many generations of artisans and designers who are adept at dovetailing their artisan skills with technology in a range of materials from cork grown in the Alentejo region to wool from the mountainous region of Serra da Estrela. Portugal and its many artisans and designers offer endless design solutions that exemplify sustainability and inventiveness.
Click here to learn more about the materials.
Viroc Cement Bonded Particle Board
CDC Craft Design Construction is a supplier of Viroc Cement Bonded Particle Board, a composite panel board of wood particles and cement bonded with coloured pigment. A material CDC has been involved with since it first entered the UK market in 2013. Click on the Viroc image below to learn how it could be used in a range of applications from flooring to signage.
Cork
Cork is one of the most sustainable and natural materials, offering a number of benefits including good acoustic & thermal properties, is beneficial to allergy sufferers, is fire retardant, impact resistant, and impermeable to liquids.
Axes are used to carefully strip the bark from the tree, thus allowing the tree to grow for 200 years. Cork not used for wine stoppers is broken down into a granular form to be manufactured into a range of sustainable products from cork flooring, to cork products and toys, and woven with cotton remnants from textile manufacturing to be made into a rug. Working with our partners CDC Craft Design Construction is also able to offer bespoke or custom made cork objects for a range of applications, from furniture to flooring.
You can read more about cork and its benefits in this article by clicking on here.
Legacy
CDC Craft Design Construction was founded in 2012 by Cristina D’Cotta, architect, alumna of FAUP (Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto). Information about FAUP can be found by clicking here.
Tragically, in April 2014, following a courageous battle against cancer, Cristina sadly passed away.
Often abbreviated to CDC, the initials represent Cristina’s name, and the craft, design and construction materials that inspired her. Setting up CDC was Cristina’s way of opening up Portugal to a wider audience, to inspire others in the way she was inspired. In legacy to Cristina’s vision, CDC is continued under the directorship of her architect husband, Richard.
Artisan and sustainability
Of course, cork is not suitable for all products. Nonetheless the desire to incorporate aspects of sustainability or re-use is threaded through the work of other artisans, such as the artisan who uses recycled timber or exotic wood species from old furniture to craft wooden toys, the selection which can be browsed by clicking here.
Maintaining the link of the past to inform the manufacturing of today is integral to many rural crafts where local materials form the basis to the product. A fine example is the hydraulic cement tiles, where locally sourced marble dust is used to bond the coloured pigments before they are placed outside under the hot Alentejo sun. A technique dating back many generations. To find out more, click here.
Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura
CDC Craft Design Construction works with the furniture maker and lighting manufacturers of designs by Pritzker Prize winning architects Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura, educators from Cristina’s alma mater. You can read more about the Prizker Prize by clicking here.
Lighting incorporating the latest electronics, engineering, materials and mechanics are manufactured to the same precision as originally specified. The very essence of timeless design, products such as Aleixo, Serralves, and Boa Nova are named after the building for which they were designed.
Clients (private clients names withheld)
Andy Stedman Landscape
Artstone
Ashley Developments
Cite Building Services Southern Ltd.
East Architecture Landscape Urban Design
Engels Gmbh
Fondation du Sport Français Henri Sérandour
Forest of Black
GDPF Motion Studio Ltd.
GHA Services Ltd.
Glasgow Sculpture Studios
Glenn Howells Architects
Hicks Joinery Ltd.
High Quality Construction
HoughtonBudd Architects
Jaycee Ltd.
John Perkins Projects Ltd.
Loughton Contracts Plc.
Mador & Partners Chartered Architects Ltd.
Method
Mixbrow Construction
Nik Lofts and Extensions
Oruspace
Quirky Interiors
Ragley Hall
Raaw Building Services Ltd.
Rebel Studio
Refurbishment Specialist
Retrovious
RJ Rogers Carpentry
RMP Projects
SBC Services
Second Home
Sedilia
Solid Crew Construction
Stuart Indge Design Ltd.
Sunbeam Wood Works Ltd.
Thompsons Ltd.
TW Developments Ltd.
Vacuum
Vanhaus Conversion
Vibry Ross Design & Construction
WB Wood
WSG
Yellow Cloud Studio
Xavio Design
Cork
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