Critical Eclecticism : the way(s) of the Porto School

Abstract

The term “Porto School” designates more than just a School of Architecture; it implies an identity that relates the pedagogy of a teaching institution with the ideas and the architectural practice of its professors and / or former students, resulting of the transmission (and update) of a way of thinking connected to a way of doing. Throughout the history of the School, the basis for the transmissibility of this identity was the official teaching of architecture in Porto (first in the School of Fine Arts, after 1984 in the Faculty of Architecture); but it also occurred in the studios of the architects (teachers and/or former students), where common principles of thought, method and taste were shared with the young disciples. The educational system of the School of Porto is thus complemented by the practice of the studios, where the small scale allows the proximity between master and apprentice. There are similarities between the work methods in the School (where the Studio classes simulate the work of an office, in a process called school-atelier) and in the studios (where the same kind of approach is more realistical, because it takes place in a professional environment); so, the ateliers of the Porto architects are an unofficial complement of the pedagogy of the School: successive generations of students / employees, will become teachers / chief-architects, influencing new generations with their experience.