The archive of more than 40 years of professional activity by architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça will be integrated into Casa da Arquitectura, reinforcing the national scope of the institution's collection. The signing ceremony will take place this Saturday, February 15, at 3:30 p.m., at the CA Archive premises.
“It is a highly comprehensive collection that reflects the high-quality work of a great architect, a benchmark in Portuguese architecture of international standing,” comments the executive director of Casa da Arquitectura, Nuno Sampaio, who also highlights CA’s commitment to “preserve, organize, and provide public access to this vast collection, which next year will culminate in a major exhibition at Casa da Arquitectura.”
The João Luís Carrilho da Graça archive arriving at Casa da Arquitectura comprises around three hundred projects, over a hundred of which resulted from public competitions. Although this extensive collection includes plans designed for various countries—Spain, France, Cyprus, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Egypt, Brazil, and the United States—the vast majority are in Portugal, including projects well known to the Portuguese public, such as the Campo Maior Swimming Pools (1982-1990), the Bridge over the Carpinteira Stream in Covilhã (2003-2009), or the Lisbon Cruise Terminal (2010-2018).
The acquired material includes drawings and writings by Carrilho da Graça and his collaborators, as well as an extensive collection of models representing built works, alternative versions of what was ultimately constructed, and even projects that never left the drawing board.
About the architect
João Luís Carrilho da Graça, born in 1952 and practicing architecture since 1977, lives and works in Lisbon. His work has been recognized with numerous awards and distinctions, including the International Association of Art Critics Award (1992), Secil Architecture Prize (1994), Valmor Prize (1998, 2008, 2010, 2017), FAD Award, Spain (1999), Order of Merit of the Portuguese Republic (1999); Luzboa – International Biennale of Light Award (2004); Pessoa Prize (2008), Piranesi Award – Prix de Rome (2010), Ordre des Arts et des Lettres – French Republic (2010), Médaille de l'Académie d'Architecture, Paris (2012), International Sacred Architecture Award – Frate-Sole (2012), Ibero-American Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism Award (2012), Annual Architecture Acquisition Prize by the National Academy of Fine Arts (2014); International Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (2015), Honorary Member of the Order of Architects (2015), Buenos Aires International Biennale of Architecture Award (2018), Leon Battista Alberti Prize from the Politecnico di Milano, Mantua Campus (2018), arpaFil Award, Guadalajara, Mexico (2018), and the Order of Public Instruction of the Portuguese Republic (2019). He has been nominated and shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award on several occasions. He participated in Portugal's official representation at the 12th, 13th, and 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as the main exhibition of the 15th Biennale.
This article was written by Romullo Baratto. The translation is powered by AI.
