Visiting Fellow, FAR
Teresa’s idea of the architect’s activity favours interpreting situations, seeking to provide global answers to people’s needs. She strives to develop, from the urban and environmental issues, a particular architectural identity that embodies and entails cultural values valid beyond their setting. She believes in relating closely to the circumstances of each project while designing, in order to incorporate its possible meaning. Her experimentation is meant to intensify in the work itself the sense of a starting point – like a power for what it will hold – instead of an arrival point.
Teresa Novais graduated in Architecture in 1991 by the Faculty of Architecture of Oporto University. From 1988 to 1990 she worked in London mainly with Foster Associates. Back in Portugal, she worked with Eduardo Souto Moura from 1991 to 1996. She collaborated sporadically with Álvaro Siza.
In 1991 she founded in Porto, with Jorge Carvalho, the architectural practice aNC arquitectos. Their work has been recognized in several occasions: it was winner of the Iberian-American Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2014, it was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies van der Rohe Award 2011 with the Leça do Balio School, it was selected for Respect for Architecture Porto 2012 with Gosho restaurant, it won the P.A.U.M.A. Award in 2006 with the Support and Maintenance Centre for Motorways in Aveiro, and was awarded the silver medal in the European Architecture Award Luigi Consenza 2002 with the House in the Countryside 1. aNC participated as local atelier in Casa da Música, a Rem Koolhaas – OMA project in Porto.
The office has been invited to present its work in lectures in Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Algeria, Sri Lanka and Argentina and its projects have been published in countless specialized publications, European and Asian. Teresa Novais was the President of the Board of Directors of the Portuguese Chamber of Architects – North between 2008/2010 and was in charge of Cultural Affairs between 2005/2007. She taught design Studio at the Architecture and Arts Faculty of Lusíada University in Porto between 1994/2015. She was guest critic at different Universities, like University of Minho, University of Coimbra, UAL Lisbon, London Metropolitan University, University College Dublin, Limerick School, and EPFL, Switzerland. She also performs several activities related with the architectural debate. She is guest professor at DARQ, University Coimbra.
Top image: Leca do Balio School, NOVAIS (2013);