Base is a space design studio working on what makes a building belong where it stands.
Integrated Space Design
Led by Joana Abreu
Studio at Erth, Abu Dhabi
Part of Ripple Collective.
(1)Us, Base
Space design has been part of this practice for more than two decades.
It began in Portugal with Nuno and Marta Abreu, on projects across several countries and continents, and is now led by Joana Abreu, a designer who grew up in the United Arab Emirates, working from Erth in Abu Dhabi.
A building is pulled at by things that do not agree with each other, arriving through specialists with different priorities, each with a good reason to compromise the whole, and holding all of it to one intent is the work. What makes that worth doing carefully is permanence: a building stands for decades after everyone who worked on it has gone.
(2)First principles
- (1)Climate before comfort
- (2)Use before gesture
- (3)Material before image
- (4)Place before interpretation
These are not preferences in this context, since heat, light, scale and cultural expectation decide what a building is allowed to be, whatever anyone drew.
(3)For visiting practices
The studio is regularly brought onto major projects by international practices working here, and by the clients who want those practices to succeed, in a role that is cultural more than procedural. What is required is knowledge of this place and the people in it, an understanding of the ambition behind a project, and something less obvious: how design is presented, discussed and decided here.
(5)Work
Much of the studio’s work is confidential. It runs from private housing to public buildings, from masterplanning ideation to premium experience design, and from high-end hospitality to cultural exhibitions.
(6)Scrapbook
It’s the stuff that lights up our brains.
- The Great Water Tower HuntA very good reason to look up, and a perfectly acceptable thing to become slightly obsessed with.
- The Zanzibar BagWhy a piece of canvas from sail was worth keeping for years.
- Dialing it backA screenless landline for kids (and maybe the rest of us).
- For the love of HelveticaOne font to rule them all. Let us explain why.
(7)Small Talk
Small Talk
Small Talk is our podcast that’s not a podcast: design conversations crafted with our friends as they pass through our Abu Dhabi studio.
Program
- Abu Dhabi Sessions30 October – 8 November 2026
- Final Draft17–18 April 2026
Join us
We’re always interested in good humans that can bring something fresh to the team and add something new to the Ripple Collective world.
Is that you?(8)Instagram
