Like the joinery techniques built into wood to avoid nails and screws, Bernardo Lopes and Zé Maria Teixeira Duarte were made to work as a duo. The name of the brand they created captures this perfectly: it is called Junto, and it has been furnishing hotels, restaurants, and private homes with bespoke solid-wood furniture.
Before joining forces and setting up their own carpentry workshop in a large warehouse in Camarate, Lisbon, each of them discovered—and fell in love with—wood in his own way. Zé Maria, now 43, was an unhappy lawyer when he decided to knock on the door of the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation to learn the traditional woodworking techniques that had long fascinated him. Bernardo, 32, studied product design and first worked with wood in the workshops of the Faculty of Architecture.
Brought together by a happy coincidence—they both relied on the same sawmill in Campolide to use certain machines, and later shared a workshop in Campo de Ourique—they discovered they could push one another further, taking wood to places they had never imagined.
The art of creating together
Like the joinery techniques built into wood to avoid nails and screws, Bernardo Lopes and Zé Maria Teixeira Duarte were made to work as a duo. The name of the brand they created captures this perfectly: it is called Junto, and it has been furnishing hotels, restaurants, and private homes with bespoke solid-wood furniture.
Before joining forces and setting up their own carpentry workshop in a large warehouse in Camarate, Lisbon, each of them discovered—and fell in love with—wood in his own way. Zé Maria, now 43, was an unhappy lawyer when he decided to knock on the door of the Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva Foundation to learn the traditional woodworking techniques that had long fascinated him. Bernardo, 32, studied product design and first worked with wood in the workshops of the Faculty of Architecture.
Brought together by a happy coincidence—they both relied on the same sawmill in Campolide to use certain machines, and later shared a workshop in Campo de Ourique—they discovered they could push one another further, taking wood to places they had never imagined.