Faculty of Architecture

Thus, the research areas of interest to the group are, in general terms, those of Architecture, Art, and Image and, in specific terms, those of Documentary and Artistic Photography related to Architecture, City and Territory. In this context, AAI promotes initiatives of research, communication and critical reflection in which Image is present in a significant way, integrating design, photography and other expressions and instruments capable of assisting architectural thought, practices, theory and imagination. AAI is specifically interested in developing and disseminating works that reflect and investigate through photography – in a critical, exploratory and innovative way – the themes of architecture, city and territory, having a comprehensive understanding of architecture as a discipline capable of integrating social, economic, political and technical dimensions reflected in its practices and theoretical body.

The AAI group, in close articulation with the curricular units of FACT and CAAD, intends to offer to the students of MIARQ (and also of PDA) a significant starting point regarding paradigms and methods of investigation, through the realization of workshops, debates, conferences and other actions of knowledge sharing, that stimulate the dialogue of students and researchers with other professionals, of diverse institutions/organizations and disciplinary fields, articulating the academic formation, the professional practice and the scientific investigation.

AAI is, in this context, an open research group, and capable of integrating several studies and works through its different sites and platforms, and which aims to gain the interest and collaboration of different people and research, from various institutions and fields of study where are located several projects as well as various actions related to them and often establishing a bridge with teaching: Master Classes, Workshops, Conferences, Debates, Open Classes with guest teachers from other disciplinary areas of the U. Porto and outside the academy, Exhibitions, development of the scopio Editions with various publications and scientific articles, among others.

AAI and scopio Editions are located at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (FAUP), one of the most prestigious schools of architecture in the world. The school’s building was designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Álvaro Siza and was attended by other famous alumni of the University of Porto, who have also taught here: Fernando Távora, who was awarded the First Prize for Architecture by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Europa Nostra Award; Nuno Portas, who was recently honoured with the Grand-Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique and the Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize for Town Planning from the Union of International Architects (UIA); Eduardo Souto Moura, who has also been awarded the Pritzker Prize.