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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá

Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá 1903-1980 Engineer and architect

Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá was born in Avintes, Vila Nova de Gaia, on 22 February 1903, in a family dedicated to the arts and education. He was the son of António Fernandes de Sá, a sculptor, and Lúcia de Araújo Lima, a primary school teacher, pedagogue and founder of the Araújo Lima private school.

At the family’s school, he taught Mathematics and Drawing, and attended the Civil Engineering course at the former Technical Faculty of the University of Porto, owhich he concluded in 1926, when the institution took the name of Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto.

Although his academic training was in the field of Engineering, the first work of art he signed – the side wings of the Araújo Lima School, in Constituição Street, in Porto – clearly revealed he was attracted to Architecture, particularly to French architecture.
For this reason, in 1928 he chose to study this interesting subject and was admitted to the École Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris, where he obtained a diploma in Architecture in 1934.

The time he spent with his wife in Paris was wholly taken up with the teachings of architects such as Garnier, Perret, Gromort, Feran and Godefroy, and he also mingled in the Fine Arts field and in the French society.

When he returned to Portugal, in 1934, he worked for the Project Department of the Regional Northern Directorate for National Monuments, where, among other activities, he rearranged the initial project for the premises of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, in Bragas Street. He also conducted other major works for private companies, such as housing projects in the Carlos Malheiro Dias, Santos Pousada, Faria Guimarães and António Cardoso streets, and took part in various public tenders: for the Caixa Geral de Depósitos building, the monument to Prince Henry, in Sagres, the swimming-pool in Castelo do Queijo, etc.

He managed to keep up to date with modern artistic and architectural trends throughout his working life by visiting France on a regular basis, and due to the close relationship he kept with the School of Fine Arts in Porto. He also benefitted much from the contacts with other artists, for example, architect Januário Godinho and painter Guilherme Camarinha.

In the 50s, he collaborated with young architects from the generation of Octávio Lixa Filgueiras and with engineers Matos Dias and Albuquerque Barbosa. During this period, he planned the architecture pavilions and exhibitions of the ESBAP (inaugurated in 1954), of the "Palacete Braguinha" (Braguinha small palace), the Porto Editora Bookstore, the Hoechst Building (1961), in Porto, the satellite unit of the D. Manuel II Sanatorium, in Vila Nova de Gaia, etc.

From the 70s on, Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá gradually renounced to architecture and dedicated most of his time to the production of water colours and drawings.

Manuel Lima Fernandes de Sá died on 5 October 1980.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2009)