In the early 1960s, Portugal saw a rise in scientific research on architecture and urbanism at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil; LNEC), fundamental to support the Government in establishing a national program for housing, which continued until the fall of the Dictatorship in 1974. Lacking tradition in scientific studies in architecture and urbanism, a group of young architects with knowledge of references from international researchers and research centers gathered encouragement and opportunities to develop their own research works and methodologies and, later, to question the application of such scientific methods. This article aims to identify and discuss the strategies and methodologies explored to develop these seminal researches, retrieving and reappraising LNEC’s archived documents and oral testimonials from former researchers. We aim at exposing the foundations of Portuguese scientific research on architecture and urbanism and its contributions to an international audience

The authors would like to thank Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) for the access granted to the archived documentation (SFRH/BPD/117167/2016). The authors are grateful to architects Alexandre Alves Costa, António Reis Cabrita, Bartolomeu da

The Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering,Scientific research,History of architecture and urbanism,History of scientific research,Nuno Portas

• Other Engineering and Technology Sciences - Engineering and Technology
• Sociology - Social Sciences
• History and Archeology - Humanities
• Other Humanities - Humanities

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• The Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) and the History of Research in Architecture