School History

History of the School

The School of Architecture, Art, and Design is one of the most recent and special Academic and Research Units of the University of Minho. It started taking its first steps twenty-five years ago, when on October 31, 1996, Dispatch RT-53/96 was published, which appointed the Installing Committee for the Degree in Architecture and for the School of Architecture. The revised version of the statutes of the University of Minho, approved by Normative Dispatch No. 25/2000, of April 10, and published in the 2nd series of the Official Gazette, No. 119, of May 23, established that the Autonomous Department of Architecture, created under the direct dependence of the rector, constituted an academic unit governed by its own regulations.

Law No. 62/2007, of September 10, established a new legal framework for Higher Education Institutions. With this new framework, the revised version of the statutes of the University of Minho was approved by Normative Order No. 61/2008, of November 14, and published in the 2nd series of the Official Gazette, No. 236, of December 5, with the Autonomous Department of Architecture being renamed as the School of Architecture. Deliberation No. 2967/2009, of September 28, published in the 2nd series of the Official Gazette No. 209/2009, of October 28, approved the Statutes of the School of Architecture and its transition to the autonomy regime granted by the University Statutes to the organizational units of teaching and research.

Normative Order No. 15/2021, of May 5, 2021, published in the 2nd series of the Diário da República No. 115/2021, of June 16, 2021, approved the amendments to the Statutes of the University of Minho, changing the designation from School of Architecture to School of Architecture, Art and Design. Order No. 7372/2021, of July 8, 2021, published in the 2nd series of the Diário da República No. 142/2021, of July 23, approved the current statutes of the School of Architecture, Art and Design.

With effort, dedication, and enthusiasm from its entire community, the School has, over these twenty-five years, managed to find its path and assert itself in a complex context. Despite numerous challenges, it has been able to fulfill its mission of generating, disseminating, and applying advanced knowledge in the fields of Architecture, Art, and Design, based on freedom of thought and the plurality of critical exercises, promoting higher education and contributing to the construction of a model of society based on humanist principles, with Knowledge, Creativity, and Innovation as factors of sustainable development and well-being.

Gallery of Presidents

Paulo J.S. Cruz

President of EAAD - 2021-2024

Pedro Bandeira

President of EAAD - 2018-2021

Maria Manuel Oliveira

President of EAAD - 2015-2018

Vincenzo Riso

President of EAAD - 2012-2015

Paulo Mendonça

Interim President of EAAD - 2011-2012

Paulo J. S. Cruz

President of EAAD - 2004-2011

Carlos A. Bernardo

President of EAAD - 1996-2004

EAAD'25 - Contributions to the history of the first 25 years of EAAD

In the action program of the presidency of the School of Architecture, Art and Design, for the 2022-2024 triennium, we committed to promoting a publication that would revisit its first 25 years and recall the role and contribution of those who participated in its construction. We began this ambitious project by, in a first phase, requesting statements from the Rectors and all the Presidents of EAAD who accompanied its creation and evolution during this period.

Although some guests have not yet been able to respond to this challenge, in order not to further delay its edition, we chose to publish these first texts as small pamphlets of a collection that we call EAAD’25, which we consider still open and under construction, and which in the near future should accommodate other accounts and testimonies that will significantly enrich the collection and contribute to understanding other facets and visions of the School.