If there had been an APP at the time, Mr José Carvalho - in the beginning for me it was Mr Carvalho Batista - would have been one with many subscribers.
But it wouldn't be an app like the ones we know today. His enormous kindness and availability would have made all the difference.
There was the human contact that we miss today.
Being an architect - back then - required regular visits to Carvalho Batista.
We would enter the front of the shop, with its long counter and the boxes perfectly aligned with a copy of the pieces it contained.
A world of parts and pieces for a multitude of uses, better or worse utilised.
The styaff, who knew almost all the customers by name - carpenters, contractors, private individuals or architects - skilfully counted nails, screws, handles, hinges, wrapping everything in thick brown paper, folded with rules and tied with string. At the end, a precise, traditional tug broke the thread.
Passing through the doors - at the back and only for a few - we entered another world that belonged to the same.
Behind a pulpit stood Mr José Carvalho.
Wearing an immaculate suit and a neatly trimmed moustache, he greeted us with a broad smile.
Behind his thick-rimmed glasses and huge eyes, he greeted everyone who came into his world of special pieces.
I always saw him chatting. A detached conversation, but always interesting and informative.
The employees used him like they use an APP today, asking anything and everything, and always getting an affable, but sharp, friendly response.
Invoices asked for his control and his initialling. He was always there.
It didn't matter if you went to Carvalho Batista with Álvaro Siza or alone. The treatment was always affable, always didactic.
In fact, we didn't go there to buy any pieces, but to see what we could or should use in this or that Work, in this or that window frame that needed something special.
And Mr José Carvalho was there to advise. Respectfully. Always.
Those were not the times of today. There was time to advise, search and talk.
We left there better architects.