Date: 10th February 2015

Times: 12:00 pm; 02.00 pm; 03.00 pm; 05.00 pm; 06.00 pm 

Venue: Rooms Hotel, 14 Merab Kostava Street, Tbilisi 

Event: 5 Portuguese Architects & Designers

Format: Lecture Series

Speakers: Prof. Carlos Alho, Manuel Teixeira, Antonio Assuncao 

Alho, Constanca Pignatelli Vasconcelos, and Fabio 

Bernardinho of FAULisboa, Portugal

Poster © Giga Khatiashvili

Five architects and urban designers from the Portuguese capital’s Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, visited Tbilisi with the EU’s Tempus program sponsorship, and shared with the IDS bachelors and Tbilisi State Academy of Arts master students their experience of working and teaching urban   issues. Carlos Alho discussed his contribution in turning Lisbon, with its Parque das Nações, into a balanced and human city. Manuel Teixeira claimed that local cultural influences were felt at the level of architecture, both in the adaptation of Portuguese models to local materials and climatic conditions, and   in the adoption by Portuguese builders to local typologies and forms. Antonio Assuncao Alho alerted the audience to the importance of topography and natural surroundings for the design of an automotive highway system. Other presentations concerned the Portuguese art and design education system and the land use management and administration for urban and rural settlements in Portugal. Generally, this series had clearly demonstrated to the IDS and TSAA students that the boundaries of design reach far beyond the product or interior scales the students typically accept as the scope of the designers’ interest.