Department Director Message

Department of Architecture and Urbanism (DAU-Iscte) was created in 2007 after the area of Architecture and Urbanism was established at Iscte in 1999 with the Degree in Architecture. The area of Architecture and Urbanism originated with the creation of the Master's Degree in Urban Design in 1995, which operated for some years in conjunction with the departments of Sociology, Anthropology and Economics.

The DAU is currently part of the Iscte School of Technology and Architecture (ISTA) on a landmark university campus located in the center of Lisbon and designed in different phases by architect Raúl Hestnes Ferreira.

The DAU brings together various scientific areas such as: Architecture, Urbanism, Drawing, Theory and History of Architecture and Urbanism, Architectural Technologies and Geography and integrates a teaching staff of 20 PhD professors and researchers who, in addition to their teaching activities, carry out research activities associated with Iscte's different Research Centers such as DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte, (Center for Studies on Socioeconomic Change and Territory), ISTAR-IUL (Center for Research in Information Sciences, Technologies and Architecture), CIES-Iscte (Center for Research and Studies in Sociology) and CRIA-Iscte (Anthropology Research Network Center).

The Architecture department has a digital fabrication laboratory (Vitruvius FabLab) that works with digital technology and tools, fostering new approaches to the creative processes inherent in the practice of architecture.

The DAU's main teaching products are the Integrated Master's Degree in Architecture, which aims to closely link theoretical and practical training to professional practice, and the PhD in Architecture of Contemporary Metropolitan Territories, where teaching and research are closely linked.

Given the multidisciplinary nature of architecture and urbanism, the inclusion of the DAU in Iscte, where social and economic sciences, technologies and management are considered areas of excellence on the national scene, allows training and research in architecture and urbanism to be articulated with other disciplines, constituting an alternative to the current models of training in architecture and urbanism.

The Director of the Department,

Teresa Madeira da Silva