History of Portuguese Architecture

Abstract

The subject of History of Portuguese Architecture (HAP) originated in the School of Fine Arts of Oporto, more than three decades ago, under mastership of the Professor and Architect Alexandre Alves Costa.At the Architecture Course of FCTUC – Faculty of Sciences andTechnology of the University of Coimbra, HAP has been present from the very beginning. It started in 1992-93, as a subject of the 5th year, under the same Alexandre Alves Costa, then member of the Installing Commission of the course. Other professors who have ensured the subject in the last decade were Walter Rossa and the late Paulo Varela Gomes in addition to Rui Lobo, lecturer for the past five years.History of Portuguese Architecture, which now operates withinthe 4th year of the Architecture Course, has always had an essential practical component. By carrying out practical group work on concrete case studies, students are expected to learn how to investigate, how to search for and collect information and how to distinguish the various "life phases” of architectural objects, from their original structure to what still stands today. It is also intended that students learn to use contemporary means to rehearse and to display the research, lacing hypotheses and illustrating more or less plausible stages of the evolution of the studied objects in time.The themes are chosen by the groups (formed by 4 to 6 students)from an extended list previously proposed by the teachers. The study cases concern mainly Coimbra and Portugal’s central region, for obvious reasons of proximity, although cases are often proposed (and accepted by the students) in other areas of the country.