PROFILE

un-icon is an international architectural practice founded in Porto (PT) in 2019 by Joana Azevedo and Matteo Missaglia.

Joana Azevedo grew up in Porto, Portugal. She studied Architecture at the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP), including a year abroad at the Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Urbanismo of the Universidad de Buenos Aires (FADU). From 2012 to 2015, she lived in Switzerland, working as an architect in Zürich. Between 2016 and 2018, she completed the postgraduate master’s program at the Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design at TU Delft. In 2019, she co-founded un-icon in Porto together with Matteo Missaglia. Since 2020, she has been a recurring guest critic at the Berlage Institute at TU Delft.

Matteo Missaglia grew up in Milan, Italy, and studied Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano. During his studies, he participated in the OSA program, through which he collaborated with Renzo Piano’s office. In 2014, he moved to the Netherlands, where he began his professional career at Mecanoo in Delft, advancing over the following years to the role of Project Leader. In 2019, he joined EM2N in Zürich. From 2021 to 2024, he worked as a Project Manager and Senior Architect at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel, Switzerland. In 2024, he relocated to Porto, where he now co-leads un-icon.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed creativity and talent to our team, and to those who continue to be part of our office today: Max Geilich, Alessio Iacob, Pietro Groppi, Niccolò Caratelli, Sofia Tarfanelli, Tuana Emirgan, Anna Faltyn, Tiago Saraiva, Ivan Sera, Rosalia Marques, Rositsa Mircheva, Ana Capela, Julia Rosas, Tiago Sousa, Amaro Viera, Clara Marinho, Raquel Matos, Rui Esmeraldo.

AWARDS:

1st Prize. Portuguese Footwear Technology Centre (Portugal, 2025)

2nd Prize. Trofa Cultural Centre (Portugal, 2024)

4th Prize. Goumoens elementary school (Switzerland, 2021)

5th Prize. Effretikon multipurpose facility (Switzerland, 2020) 

COPYRIGHT

This website and its content is copyright of un-icon. Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the contents in any form is prohibited. You may not, except with our express written permission, distribute or commercially exploit the content. Nor may you transmit it or store it in any other website or any other form of retrieval system without the prior written permission of un-icon.