Industrial, energy, technology, urban planning.
An integrated reading of architecture, engineering and licensing across four areas.
Sterile pharmaceutical cleanrooms classified GMP A through D, HACCP-grade food facilities, cryogenic envelopes for frozen storage. Compartmentalised flows, environmental control, regulatory compliance.
Photovoltaic plants connected to the national transmission grid, green hydrogen units, ancillary substations. Coordination across RAN, REN and municipal frameworks.
Masterplanning and municipal feasibility for hyperscale data centres, with dedicated substations, multi-tier redundancy, and the uptime requirements of world top-tier operators.
Allotments, masterplans, detailed plans — including the urban planning component of industrial and energy operations. Liaison with municipal authorities and regional regulators.
A portfolio of the last 5 years.
Most projects of this nature are presented under NDA. The following are representative of the practice's recent output.
A discipline of early integration.
Across engineering disciplines, regulatory authorities and time. The method is procedural and the same on every project.
From the first schematic design phase, dedicated coordination sessions with the technical disciplines surface incompatibilities while they remain inexpensive to resolve. The same logic applies to licensing: informal dialogue with the authorities precedes every formal submission.
Engineering teams contracted by the promoter or project manager are coordinated through SOMA's architectural model — systematic clash detection, technical BIM meetings, and contractual BEPs that hold across phases. Beyond design, SOMA acts as continuous development advisor to project management.
ArchiCAD as native BIM software in consolidated practice since 2007. Progressive level of information by phase under EN 17412 (LOIN) and ISO 19650, with IFC 4 deliverables and traceable cross-referencing between model, schedules and details.
The Practice
Founded in Lisbon in 2002 as a studio of architecture and urban planning, with a first commission — a frozen bakery production plant — that set the trajectory: industrial typologies, regulated environments, and the integrated coordination of architecture with the technical disciplines that build them.
Today, what distinguishes the practice is the direct articulation between architectural design, technical coordination of the engineering specialties, and the management of licensing processes — anticipating regulatory risk as part of the project, not as a consequence of it.
Miguel O’Neill Mendes,
Architect and urban planner, founding partner of SOMA. Leads the Architecture · Engineering practice and serves as technical director across the firm's industrial, energy and technology projects. Twenty years of experience as lead designer and development advisor for promoters, industrial clients and licensing authorities.
