LVA 253.079 MA Design Studio S26 15.0 ECTS
Supervision:
Visiting Professor Graça Correia,
Klausberger Ines
This studio approaches architecture as a process of transformation rooted in continuity – not as stagnation, but as metamorphosis: the reinterpretation of tradition in response to contemporary challenges.
Using the Casa Burguesa do Porto, we study Porto’s traditional housing system – an intelligent synthesis of construction logic, spatial organisation, typology and locally available materials, shaped by geological, landscape and economic conditions, and enriched through exchange via the river.
In the Rua do Teatro building, Souto Moura reinterprets this system, demonstrating how innovation can emerge from tradition while addressing environmental and ecological challenges with effective solutions.
Today, Portugal faces a housing crisis comparable to the period of the Carnation Revolution. The project engages this challenge through a significant void on Avenida da Boavista – Porto’s main modern axis – as a site for transformation and experimentation. It proposes that the form of the building shapes the form of the city, particularly when it designs public space.
By articulating scales from dwelling to city, and by developing new urban strategies, typologies and forms, the studio explores how architectural form structures urban space. The project evolves from urban concept to architectural detail, integrating typology, construction and material into a coherent proposal, based on the premise that architectural quality fosters well-maintained, democratic urban spaces people want to inhabit.
