Open Class at FAUP takes academic community to the “Luis Ferreira Alves Award” Exhibition at the Old Town Hall
EN / PT
On 3 October 2025, the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) held an open class in the form of a guided tour of the “Luis Ferreira Alves Award” Exhibition, on display at the Old Town Hall, in Terreiro da Sé, Porto.
The session, led by Pedro Leão Neto, coordinator of the Luis Ferreira Alves Award – Luis Ferreira Alves International Photography Competition | A Contemporary Look at Architecture, brought together students from the Architectural Photography, City and Territory (FACT) from the 2nd Cycle and Photography and Communication of Architectural Projects (FCPA I and II) from the 1st Cycle, as well as some visitors who were visiting the exhibition at the time, transforming the moment into an open space for dialogue between academia and the public.
During the visit, Pedro Leão Neto presented the context and general objectives of the Luis Ferreira Alves Award, explaining the themes and visual strategies developed by the authors on display — not only the three winners, but also the finalists and special mentions. The visit was also attended by researcher and photographer Ana Miriam Rebelo, from the AAI – Architecture, Art and Image group, who shared her reflections on photography as a tool for research and communication in the field of architecture.
Among the featured series, ‘Brancos Frequentes’ (Frequent Whites) by Iranian photographer Maho (1st Prize) offers a poetic and phenomenological interpretation of architecture as a space for memory and displacement; “Oui avec plaisir” by Cyrille Weiner (2nd Prize) offers a humanistic view of architecture as a living and social structure; and “Atlas Provisório de Berlim” by Sergio Belinchón (3rd Prize) is the result of extensive fieldwork, revealing a critical view of contemporary urban transformation processes.
The exhibition also includes works by James Smith, Nuno Serrão, Vincenzo Pagliuca, Seunggu Kim, Marco Yat Chun Chan, Kris Scholz and Ricardo Nunes, which address, from different perspectives, the relationships between built space, landscape, memory and identity.
This open class was part of a series of activities promoted by FAUP that aim to encourage exploration and debate around Architecture and Public Space, with a special focus on photography as a tool for research, communication and critical reflection. The format, open to the academic community and the general public, highlights the importance of dialogue between artistic practice, teaching and research.
The ‘Luis Ferreira Alves Award’ exhibition can be visited until November 2025 at the Antiga Casa da Câmara, a building of strong historical and architectural symbolism, designed by Fernando Távora.