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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

David Moreira da Silva

David Moreira da Silva 1909-2002 Architect and urban planner

David Moreira da Silva was born on 21 February 1909 in S. Salvador de Moreira, in Maia. He was the son of José Moreira da Silva, a civil constructor and co-founder of the Porto Stonemason Cooperative, and of Lucinda Alves da Silva.
In 1921, he enrolled in the preparatory course at the Porto School of Fine Arts, so he could later attend the Special Architecture Course, which he completed in 1929.

After completing the course, he travelled abroad, training at the workshop of Laloux-Lemaresquier from 1931 to 1934, where he prepared his admission to the Paris School of Fine Arts.
In 1934, he received a scholarship from the National Education Board and the Institute for Advanced Culture. In the following years, he attended the Paris School of Fine Arts (1934-1939) and the Institute of Urban Planning in Paris (1935-1939), and completed the Architecture and Urban Planning courses in 1939, receiving the Diploma for Special Studies in Urban Planning and the title of Certified Architect from the French Government.
During his stay in Paris, he was taught by great masters, such as architects Charles Lemaresquier (1870-1972), Louis Bonnier (1856-1946) and the urban planning architect Jacques Gréber (1882-1962), author of the garden projects at Casa de Serralves.

On his return to Portugal, he became a staff member at the ESBAP, where he taught the 16th subject, between January 1946 and December 1957. He was Interim Professor of the Urban Planning Group, and in 1962 sat the exams for the position of Aggregate Professor, presenting the project for the Partial Urban Plan for Nevogilde.

David Moreira da Silva shared his life and work with Maria José Marques da Silva, whom he had met in architect Marques de Silva's circle of workers, and whom he married in 1943.

The couple lived in Angola, where Moreira da Silva participated in the pioneering preliminary draft project for the urban plan of Luanda, along with the planner Etienne de Gröer, following similar work done for Coimbra. In the field of urban planning, he designed the draft urban plans for several towns, such as Aveiro, Barcelos, Moledo, Paredes, Matosinhos, Valongo, Guimarães, Chaves and Águeda.

His partner, Maria José Marques da Silva, also worked with him in many of his urban and architecture projects, for example, Palácio do Comércio (1944-1946), in Sá da Bandeira, Fernandes Tomás, Bolhão and Firmeza Streets, in Porto, built for the industrialist Delfim Ferreira, a housing and commercial building in Art Déco, the façade of which boasted pergola structures, lettering and a sculpture by Henrique Moreira; the building for rental purposes "Trabalho e Reforma" (1949-1953), with a sculpture of the stonemason done by Lagoa Henriques, in Nossa Senhora de Fátima Street, in Porto; the Belvedere Tower of the Stonemason Cooperative (1963-1969), in Alegria Street, also in Porto; the foyer of Nossa Senhora da Conceição Church and its pinnacle, in Marquês de Pombal Square, in Porto, and completed the works begun by Marques da Silva after his death, in 1947 (the new building of Sociedade Martins Sarmento, Municipal Market, the Sanctuary of Penha and S. Torcato Church, in Guimarães, in addition to the building in Barjona de Freitas Street, in Barcelos).
The couple also dedicated their time to agriculture in Barcelos, in the 1970s and 1980s.

David Moreira da Silva, an urban planner, architect, teacher and honorary member of the Martins Sarmento Society, died in 2002.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)