What's missing in Portugal then?
Often what happens is that the only way we have, and so it was when I started, is to put the pieces in the consignment shops. Since the stores put up 100% they became very expensive. We have to hope that the pieces are sold or not. It is always a difficult process. Maybe it was more productive to have another kind of spaces. Began to appear in fairs that I believe are very important here as the garden of the Estrela what happens in the first week-end of the month and I consider to be important for promoting the work of designers. It is a space that allows them to exhibit and sell is the ultimate goal of our designs.
How do you rate design education abroad?
The student is motivated to be there. So they assume that the student is going to make the most of the work and the teachers only guide. Here in Portugal, the student is waiting for everything to be delivered. Therefore, I agree more with the English method, where the teacher has a guiding role, since he already took its course and most of the work rests with the student. It's more experimental type of education.
And the education in Portugal?
When I returned I was not closely linked to education.
But I noticed that you taught ...
Yes, yes, I taught when I started at the beginning. Do not know if there was an evolution, but I hope so, there has been. I hope that there was a transformation even more than the students themselves, their location within the university. A more active and less passive role. Are not expecting everything to be given, but research and questioning the teachers.
The future for your projects?
I'm relaunching the project of the lamps with acrylic and transparencies. I intend to contact Vodafone to reissue them otherwise. And I am developing new works in glass.
When you create a piece do you have an environmental concern?
Yes, for example, the lamps were Vodafone boxes that go to waste, they would not have other utility. It is a recycling use of an element and transforms it into a piece of design.
