Fernando Luís Cardoso de Meneses de Tavares e Távora, ComSE, simply known as Fernando Távora (

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, August 25, 1923 -

Matosinhos Matosinhos, Porto, Portugal () is a city and a municipality in the northern Porto district of Portugal, bordered in the south by the city of Porto (8 km from the city centre). The population in 2011 was 175,478, and covered an area of approx ...

, September 3, 2005), was a renowned

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Biography

Praça 8 de Maio Coimbra photo by Christian Gänshirt

The sixth of seven children and third of three sons of José Pinto Tavares de Mendonça Ferrão or José Ferrão de Tavares e Távora and wife Maria José do Amaral Ferrão Lobo Machado or Maria José Lobo de Sousa Machado Cardoso de Meneses, of the Viscounts of Paço de Nespereira, he inherited from his mother the House of Covilhã. He graduated in architecture from the Porto School of Fine Arts (which later became the

school of architecture This is a list of architecture schools at colleges and universities around the world. An architecture school (also known as a school of architecture or college of architecture), is an institution specializing in architectural education. Africa ...

of the University of Porto) in 1952. Having sat the examination in Fine Composition for Professor of Architecture, he was later invited to become a Professor at the school. Participating in several

Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ad ...

(CIAM) and

Team 10 Team 10 – just as often referred to as Team X or Team Ten – was a group of architects and other invited participants who assembled starting in July 1953 at the 9th Congress of the International Congresses of Modern Architecture (CIAM) and c ...

meetings, he became a key person in the modernization of the Porto School. Two of his former students,

Álvaro Siza Álvaro (, , ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese male given name and surname (see Spanish naming customs) of Visigothic origin. Some claim it may be related to the Old Norse name Alfarr, formed of the elements ''alf'' "elf" and ''arr'' "warrio ...

(who also worked in his architecture office) and

Eduardo Souto de Moura Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura (; born 25 July 1952), better known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, is a Portuguese architect who was the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2011 and the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013. Along with Ferna ...

, have been awarded the

Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

. Later on, Távora became "President of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto" and university professor at the same faculty, as well as professor of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

. He took part in the late 1950s "Survey on Portuguese Architecture" and was the author of several essays, namely "O Problema da Casa Portuguesa" (Lisbon, 1947) and "Da Organização do Espaço" (Porto, 1962 and 1982). One of his most important works in the 1980s was the renovation and extension of the

Pousada Pousadas de Portugal () is a chain of luxury, traditional or historical hotels in Portugal. Formerly run by the Portuguese State, they are now run by the Pestana Group, which in September 2003 won a public bid for the sale of 37.6% of parent compa ...

de Guimarães, a former convent which at the time was transformed into the Sta. Marinha Historic Hotel. Besides his academic career, Távora worked as an architect for Porto Town Council, consultant to

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; cel-x-proto, Cale), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a population of ...

Town Council, consultant in the "Commissariat on the Urban Renovation of the Ribeira/Barredo" (Porto) project, consultant in the "Technical Bureau of the Northern Planning Commission", and consultant in the "Local Technical Bureau of

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCWorld Heritage Sitesince 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved and a ...

Town Council".

Works (selected)

* Summer House at Ofir * Vila da Feira Municipal Market * Quinta da Conceicao Municipal Parc in

Leça da Palmeira Leça da Palmeira () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Matosinhos in the Greater Porto area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Matosinhos e Leça da Palmeira. It has 5.97 km² and had 17.215 inhabitants ...

* Quinta da Conceicao Tennis Pavilion in

* Santa Marinha Convent in

* General urban plan of

* Renovation of the

Soares dos Reis National Museum Soares dos Reis National Museum ( pt, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis) is a museum, currently housed in the Carrancas Palace situated in the civil parish of Cedofeita, Santo Ildefonso, Sé, Miragaia, São Nicolau e Vitória, in the northern Portug ...

* Renovation of the Praça 8 de Maio in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

Recognition

Távora's work was exhibited at exhibitions around the world, including the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, Washington; "Artes Plásticas I and II" at the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...

, Lisbon; "Eleven Architects from Oporto", Lisbon; "Architectures à Porto", Clemont Ferrand; Europália 1991, Brussels; and the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. The Fernando Távora Architecture prize (Portuguese: Prémio Fernando Távora de Arquitetura) of the Portuguese Architects Association is named after him.

Awards

He was granted a scholarship by the

and the Institute for Culture in the United States and Japan in 1960.FERNANDO TÁVORA: Diário da Viagem aos USA, 1960, online at: http://www.oasrn.org/premio.php?inf=diario, retrieved January 24, 2015 He was awarded several prizes in architecture, as well as the Golden Medal of the city of Porto and the Order of St James of the Sword. The

awarded him a

Doctor Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

References

Footnotes

External links

William JR Curtis William J. R. Curtis (born 21 March 1948, in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England) is an architectural historian whose writings have focused on twentieth century architecture. Curtis seems particularly interested in broadening the "canon" to include ...

on Fernando Távora in

The Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...