Inauguration of the Exhibition, Saturday, January 29^th, 2022, 15h30 

Description

The SANTACRUZ Project stems out from the state of disintegration in which the old monastic structures are in today, result of the long disassembling process that took place after the abolition of the Religious Orders, in 1834. In 1876-79 the Porter’s Cloister was destroyed to give way to the new City Hall. The SANTACRUZ Project combines three fundamental aspects: historical and documental research, new technologies (through the elaboration of a 3D reconstitution model of the monastery in 1834 and respective apps) and urban and architectural design.

The exhibition, held in the former monastic refectory, focuses on this last dimension and presents architectural designs by final year students from the Department of Architecture of the University of Coimbra, coordinated by João Mendes Ribeiro, for the installation of a museum and interpretation centre in the Santa Cruz Monastery and surrounding area. This way, based on the extraordinary symbolic, cultural and artistic legacy of the Monastery ofSanta Cruz, and on the concept of “Historic Urban Landscape” recently coined by UNESCO, we suggest a new and mobilizing goal for Coimbra in the 21^st century.

The exhibition also includes the presentation of the recreation of Hodart’s “Last Supper”, a sculptural ensemble today at the Machado de Castro National Museum, displayed through a 3D VideoMapping in its original location.

Curators: Rui Lobo, João Mendes Ribeiro, Mauro Costa Couceiro, Susana Lobo | Co-Producers: SANTACRUZ Project (CES-UC) + Municipality of Coimbra
 

Bio notes

Rui Lobo is a professor at the Architecture Department of FCTUC and a researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra. He holds PhD in Architecture, in 2010, at the University of Coimbra: A Universidade na Cidade. Urbanismo e Arquitectura universitários na Península Ibérica da Idade Média e da primeira Idade Moderna. He has produced research in the field of Theory and History of Architecture, particularly in the history of university architecture and urbanism and in the history of Portuguese architecture (16th to 18th centuries). He has taught course units of Architecture Theory and History, Design and Research Seminar. Between 2015 and 2018, he was Subdirector of the Department of Architecture of FCTUC.He is currently Principal Researcher of the Santa Cruz Research Project, financed by FCT and FEDER/COMPETE2020/POCI.

João Mendes Ribeiro João Mendes Ribeiro (Coimbra, 1960). Architect by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto in 1986. Holds a Doctorate in Architecture at the University of Coimbra in 2009. He is Associate Professor of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra, where he teaches Project III. Distinguished with several awards such as FAD Award 2004 and 2016; Gold Medal for Best Stage Design, Prague Quadrennial, 2007; Enor Prize 2009; BIAU 2012 and 2016 Award; RIBA Award for International Excellence 2016 and BigMat Award 2017. He is a researcher of the «Santa Cruz Research Project», financed by FCT and FEDER/COMPETE2020/POCI.

Mauro Costa Couceiro Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Over the past two decades, he has been teaching and developing techniques and technologies around analogies between Biology, Architecture and Design, particularly in the interaction of analog and digital processes, covering the fields of materialization and design through robotic methods (CAM) and Artificial Intelligence (CCAD – Computer Creative Assisted Design). He has developed his doctoral research at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Escuela Superior de Arquitectura, linking to this day the “Consolidated Research Group of Genetic Architectures” in Barcelona.

Susana Lobo is Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture FCTUC, Associate Researcher at the Center for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, and Researcher at the Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture (CITUA), at the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon. She holds a PhD in Architecture, specializing in Theory and History, from the University of Coimbra, in 2013. She has developed her research on the study of Portuguese Architecture and Urbanism of the 20th Century and on the study of the Architecture and Urbanism of Tourism. She currently teaches the curricular units of Project III and Urbanism, Architecture and Tourism of the Integrated Master in Architecture at DARQ-FCTUC and collaborates with the Seminar on Theory and History and Urbanism of the doctoral program CoimbraStudio of DARQ-FCTUC. She is a researcher of the «Santa Cruz Research Project», financed by FCT and FEDER/COMPETE2020/POCI.