The postdoctoral project entitled “The Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) and the History of Research in Architecture” aim to expose, to a broad audience, the foundations of Portuguese scientific research on architecture and urbanism. In the early 1960s, Portugal saw a rise in scientific research on architecture and urbanism at the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) as a prominent scientific area in the international post-war conjuncture. This public institution, supported by the Ministry of Public Works, was fundamental in bringing together researchers with different professional education (as architects, engineers, sociologist, and mathematicians) to develop their first scientific research works, focusing on housing and urban interventions problematics. Lacking tradition in scientific studies in such domains, this group of young architects-researchers with knowledge of references from international researchers and research centres gathered encouragement and opportunities to develop their own research works and methodologies. Later, the contributions of the LNEC’s research work guided architectural practice and political decisions, particularly after fall of the dictatorship in 1974, with affects in current times. Based on primary sources, including documentation archived at the LNEC library and archives, but also on the qualitative analysis of several interviews and oral statements to LNEC’s former researchers, this postdoctoral project intends to identify who was the first generation of LNEC’s architects-researchers; to discuss the main strategies and methodologies of research; and to verify the applicability of research in professional life.

In recent years the entire legal and regulatory basis of the Portuguese Planning System underwent an ambitious and far reaching reform. However, today like in the past, the major effort in the production of new legislation and regulation was not accompanied by a similar effort in the production of planning doctrine, here understood as a vast and coherent set of planning policies and implementation measures, able to improve, from a technical and scientific point of view, and under an evidence based approach, not only the quality of planning practice but also, and foremost,its proactive role, incorporating new and emerging topics and societal challenges and concerns, promoting change and opening new transition avenues into the future. This proactive role of planning, advocated here, contrasts with its traditional conservative standing in Portugal (and in other EU Member States), of looking backwards and passively accommodating, if not slowing down, change and the social and physical reform of our cities and metropolises.   Planning can, and should, constitute a transformative device in our cities in Europe and elsewhere, particularly in the present times and with a view into the long term. Indeed, current changes seem far more deep within the existing urban tissues experiencing profound recompositions of functions and activities, than in physical terms, strictly speaking,where past investments in infrastructures and in the built environment seemed to have exceeded the real demand and generated a surplus of the building stock that, some years later, still remains partially empty or underused.   The Spatial Planning for Change (SPLACH) programme draws on some of the main areas of knowledge of thre eresearch centres CITTA, DINÂMIA'CET-IUL and GOVCOPP. Two to three main areas of knowledge were identified for each centre: post carbon cities, transformative policies, spatial planning, socio-technical system, food security,services of general interest, tourism and modeli...

Project goals are to develop a comparative analysis of the metabolic behaviour of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in different historical periods (from pre-industrial period to the present) and therefore assess the behaviour of urban form (generically) to the metabolic system in use in its own historical period under review. Additionally it is intended to identify elements of urban form in particular historical moments that were determinant to transform material and water flows in the city. The city urban structure will be assessed based on methodologies provided by (i) urban Material Flow Accounting research, ii) substance flow accounting and (iii) assessment of the morphological evolution of the urban form. Such assessment of the evolution of urban metabolism aims to evaluate drivers and successful responses to transform the current metabolism promoting a more sustainable urban environment.