Cláudio Vilarinho was born in Guimarães, Portugal, in 1977.

Since 1999, as a student, he started to collaborate with several architecture offices.

In 2002, he has a degree in Architecture by "Departamento Autónomo de Arquitectura da Universidade do Minho”, Portugal. He has been awarded every year for his best academic results in the architectural degree.
In 2001 working as co-author won the 1º Prize at the “11º Concurso Ibérico Pladur, Unidad Habitacional para Intervenciones de Urgencia”, as a result he went to Madrid on behalf of his team to participate in the Exhibition.
He was also awarded with a Socrates-Erasmus scholarship for studying at the “Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne”, Switzerland; where amongst others his teachers were Annette Gigon y Mike Guyer).
In 2007, he got a scholarship by the “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid”, Spain, to study in the Master's Degree in Collective Housing; the Master teachers were Juan Herreros (Ábalos & Herreros), Felix Claus (Claus en Kaan), Dietmar Eberle ( Baumschlager & Eberle ), Frits van Dongen, Wiel Arets, Jan Neutlings, Anne Lacaton (Lacaton & Vassal), amongst others.

He was awarded in 2003 with the First Prize in International Architecture Competition for young Architects “Europan 7 - Vila do Conde, Portugal”, being a co-author in this project.

He set down his own professional architecture studio - claudiovilarinho.com architects and designers, in 2005. Since late 2007, this structure has received several distinctions, including the Mobility Award 2007 (awarded for the design of a collective housing building for the elderly); in the competition for the AMI headquarters in Cascais, the studio has been the youngest team to be awarded a prize; also, for the competitions of the Scholar Centre in Fonte de Angeão and in Gafanha da Boa-Hora, both in Vagos, the studio has been awarded the 2nd and 3rd prizes respectively, in 2009, the 1st prize in the Uniscala '09 competition, and the 3rd prize in the Arraiolos Castle Requalification Competition; finally, already in 2010 the studio wins the 1st prize in the Museu da Electricidade Exhibition, for the Triennale Lisbon 2010 competition.

In 2008, Cláudio Vilarinho was invited to be a teacher-coordinator in one of the six workshops "pH04 - paisajes Habitados".