Research Group
Research Group
Research Group
DINÂMIA'CET-IUL
Centre for Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies
Integrated Researcher
Ana Vaz Milheiro
research interests
Architecture and Urbanism in Former Portuguese Colonial Territories
Short Bio
Integrated researcher at DINÂMIA'CET-IUL and Assistant Professor with Aggregation at the Faculty of Architecture at Lisbon University. Former IIAS Fellow (Israel Institute for Advanced Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem), from the research group “Re-Theorizing Housing as Architecture Research” (2019-20). PhD (2004) in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Chair of the Cost Action CA18137 “European Middle-Class Mass Housing” (2019-23), supported by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020. PI of five research projects focused on architecture and urban planning in former Portuguese colonial African countries and middle-class housing, financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology, including the ongoing project “Middle-Class Mass Housing …” (ARTDAQ/30594/2017) and more recently “Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars… (PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020).
Art and architecture critic and essayist prize by the Portuguese Section of AICA/ Fundação Carmona e Costa (2013) with “Nos Trópicos sem Le Corbusier – Arquitectura Luso-Africana no Estado Novo” (2012). Invited researcher at Ghent University (2015-16) and Fellow Researcher at University of São Paulo (2018, funded by FAPESP - São Paulo).
research project at dinâmia'cet-Iscte
Head Researcher of the project “Middle Class Mass Housing in Europe, Africa and Asia” submitted to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in May 2017. [Ref. PTDC/ART-DAQ/30594/2017]; Partners of ISCTE-IUL in the research: Docomomo Macao, Docomomo Belgium, Docomomo Angola, Universidade Universidade Agostinho Neto (Angola), Politecnico di Milano (Department of Architecture and Urban Studies); Requested amount: €239.984,38
The main goal of the project is to carry out a compared analysis of Middle Class Mass Housing (MCMH) in Europe, Africa and Asia, introducing new case studies to deepen the existing research, made with successfully tested methodologies: survey, catalogue and contextualization of housing complexes built between the 1950s and the 1980s in Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Angola and China. It is intended to identify the existing housing and urban models and to map the changes until now. The case studies are located in Milan, Antwerp, Lisbon, Luanda and Macao. It will be essential to assess their resilience, the renewal of infrastructure and building systems and to outline the profile of its residents. Special attention will be given to their promotion and its effect on the profile of the current inhabitants (pioneer, recent, immigrant). The team consists of Portuguese, Italian, Belgian, Macanese and Angolan researchers, architects, architectural historians and sociologists, assisted by 4 consultants.
Link to DINÂMIA'CET-IUL identifying mission:
Research project articulated with the research line "Ways of Living, Society and Architecture"
Main publications
Milheiro, Ana Vaz (2018). “Through the black of the earth and the white of the Wall - (7) incomplete manifestos for a public Portuguese architecture” – “Pelo negro da terra e pelo branco do muro – (sete) incompletos manifestos por uma arquitectura portuguesa pública”, in Costa, Nuno Brandão; Mah, Sérgio (cur.). Public Without Rhetoric, 16º Mostra Internazionale di Architettura di Venezia. Portuguese National Participation, [Porto]: Monade/dgartes, p. 203-217, ISBN 978-989-99485-4-9
Milheiro, Ana Vaz (2017). Arquitecturas Coloniais Africanas no fim do “Império Português”/”African Colonial Architecture at the end of the “Portuguese Empire”, Lisboa: Relógio d’Água, 2017 ISBN: 9789896416456
Milheiro, A. V.; Fiúza, F.; Almeida, R. V. (ed. 2016) Dossier: Optimistic Suburbia – Large housing complexes for the middle-class. Cidades, Comunidades e Territórios, 33 (Dec/2016) ISSN: 2182-3030 ERC: 123787/2011
Milheiro, A.V. (2016). "Architecture et colonialisme", in Grande, N. (ed.), Les universalistes - 50 ans d'architecture portugaise. Paris: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Cité de l'architecture & du patrimoine / Marselha: Éditions Parenthèses, p.102-108. ISBN 978-2-86364-311-2
Milheiro, A. V. (2016). “Architecture and Spirit: the role of tourist resorts to public servants in the Portuguese colonialism”, in Tostões, A.; Ferreira, Z. (editors), Docomomo 14th International Conference, Adaptive Re-use – Proceedings 6-9 September, p. 93-101. The Modern Movement Towards the Future, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa ISBN: 978-989-99645-0-1
Main projects
"Coast to Coast – Late Portuguese Infrastructural Development in Continental Africa (Angola and Mozambique): Critical and Historical Analysis and Postcolonial Assessment” | funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (2016 - 2019) PTDC/ATP-AQI/0742/2014.
"LLM - Homes for the biggest number: Lisbon, Luanda, Macao" | funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (2013 - 2015) PTDC/ATP-AQI/3707/2012.
"Colonial Urbanization Offices: Architectural Culture and Practice" | funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (2010-2013) PTDC/AUR-AQI/104964/2008.
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