(1923-2005) 

Fernando Távora received unanimous acclaim and admiration in his two parallel careers, as a practicing architect and as a professor. Considered a father of and a reference in contemporary Portuguese architecture, his work is a seamless synthesis of modernity’s universal rules and the teachings of local tradition. Born in Porto in 1923, he graduated from his native city’s Fine Arts School in 1952 and remained attached to it for over forty years as a professor, instilling in his students not a form or style of building, but a way of understanding architecture through familiarity with the circumstances and the mediums in which it unfolds. This is precisely one of the distinctive features of the so-called Porto School, of which Távora is a central figure alongside his immediate disciples, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura. The town market of Vila da Feira, the refurbishing of the historic center of Gimarães, and the renovation of the House of the 24 in Porto are among his many works, a great part of which stems from his dedication to his country’s historic legacy.