Authentication

User ID:

Password:

Iniciar sessão

U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Camilo Cortesão

Camilo Cortesão 1949- Architect

Camilo dos Santos Pinto Cortesão was born on 2 April 1949, in the Porto parish of Santo Ildefonso.

He attended the Architecture course at the Porto School of Fine Arts, which he completed in 1972. However, he had already designed architecture projects for the Housing Bureau, among others, since 1969.

In the post-25 April 1974 period, he joined the project entitled SAAL (Local Support Service) set up to minimize the needs of the populations living in poor facilities, and did his military service at the Department of Fortifications and Military Works, in Coimbra, as an architect.

His architecture career, developed over 40 years of activity, was marked by two significant works: the cooperation in the much debated recovery of downtown Porto, during the "Porto 2001 – European Capital of Culture" and the symbolic Parque Verde do Mondego, in Coimbra. These are, without a doubt, two of the most important landmarks in his work. Cortesão joined a group of four architects appointed by Sociedade Porto 2001 SA to carry out rehabilitation works in downtown Porto, and was responsible for the renovation of the West Area -A (Cordoaria, Leões and Restauração). In this project, Camilo Cortesão and Mercês Vieira, Arquitectos Lda transformed, in a bold and rather controversial way, the romantic João Chagas Garden (commonly known as "Jardim da Cordoaria"), designed in the 1800s by the German architect Emílio David (the space had been built in the 18th century), and converted it into a modern, safe and transparent place (1999-2000)

The Parque Verde do Mondego, designed in cooperation with Mercês Vieira and João Nunes, was a more peaceful project. The public tender was launched in 1995, and later included in the Polis Programme [city renovation plan](2001), and aimed to rehabilitate and value the natural elements along the Mondego river banks. This new park in Coimbra boasts extensive lawns, woods, hot-houses, a parking space with trees, esplanades with bars and restaurants facing the river, a walking bridge by Cecil Balmond and Adão da Fonseca, and the old Portuguese Pavilion of Expo'98, by Siza Vieira, Souto Moura and Cecil Balmond, etc.

Other architecture woks by Losa include, for example, a house project in Coimbra (1973), co-authored with Alexandre Alves Costa, Campus II of the University of Coimbra (1989), co-authored with Mercês Vieira and António Babo, and a housing complex in Castro Verde, co-authored with Nuno Portas, J. L. Gomes and Mercês Vieira.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)