Q+A with Rafael Almeida

Well, there's no simple answer to that, but in short terms, I am responsible for providing spaces that fit people’s needs and their activities, making sure they are safe, healthy, effective, sustainable and feasible. The challenge is to achieve it in accordance with codes and laws, the budget, technical limitations and good aesthetics.

When I was finishing high school, I met an architect that showed me that architecture is a true art, where you must apply your skills, technical knowledge and creativity in order to make a place where people will interact over their lifetime. Everyone spends their whole life interacting with architectural spaces, urban spaces or landscapes. So, better architecture actually can help to provide better life. To me, it was a way to make something meaningful.

Life at Ghafari is never boring. We are always facing new projects, clients and situations that demand the most of our creativity to be solved. Besides that, at Ghafari we are always interacting with different disciplines, technologies and cultures from all over the world. This gives us the opportunity for constant learning and growth.

To be part of the Azul MRO Hangar design team. This is a project with no precedent in Brazil. It was exciting to collaborate with our global team in order to bring to my country a state-of-the-art design. This project has already become a reference for the industry in Brazil. I’m proud of it!

The main lesson I’ve learned in Ghafari is the importance of diversity in design. When we have diversity interacting (it can be knowledge, technologies or cultures), it creates something completely new. That opens the possibilities for evolution.

My favorite way to spend my free time is traveling with my wife, Beatriz. To know new places, cultures and flavors is our favorite way to enjoy each other’s company.