University of Évora awards honoris causa to architect Carrilho da Graça

Architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça, 70, will receive the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Évora (UÉ), in a ceremony scheduled for next Tuesday, the Alentejo academy announced this Wednesday.

The University of Évora, in a statement sent to the Lusa agency, revealed that the doctoral ceremony will take place in the Actos room of Colégio Espírito Santo, at 3 pm.

The laudatory speech will be in charge of Jorge Araújo, professor and former rector of the UÉ, who is patron of the distinction, together with the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, highlighted the academy.

The current rector of the UÉ, Hermínia Vasconcelos Vilar, justified the granting of the doctorate to the architect “by the genius that Carrilho da Graça imprints in all his works, characteristically with a strong relationship with the territories”.

What, for the dean, “says a lot about her personality and the relevance that, from an early age, she has assumed in architecture in Portugal and abroad”, can be read in the statement.

Carrilho da Graça is a “unique figure” in the national cultural panorama, more precisely in the area of ​​architecture, added the dean.

“The architect Carrilho da Graça seeks to offer us something new in his works, experimenting with innovative solutions that challenge us”, he said, giving as an example the combination of cork and concrete in the work of the Cruise Terminal in Lisbon, recently considered the “Best Europe Cruise Terminal” at the World Cruise Awards.

In addition, the dean highlighted the “strong connection of Carrilho da Graça to the University of Évora”, where he was professor and director of the Department of Architecture and promoter of the Doctoral Program in Architecture, “and to the Alentejo region, where he was born” , having been born in Portalegre, in 1952.

More recently, the architect designed the new building for the Alentejo Science and Technology Park (PACT), in Évora.

According to the UÉ, “these are just a few arguments that motivated the attribution of the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Évora to the architect Carrilho da Graça”.

In April, at the Casa de Arquitetura, in Matosinhos (Porto), the exhibition “Flashback Carrilho da Graça” opened, which shows more than 40 years of work and professional career of the architect and can be visited until January 29 of the next year, said the Alentejo Academy.

João Luís Carrilho da Graça has a degree in Architecture from the Lisbon Superior School of Fine Arts, author of projects in Portugal, Spain, France, Cyprus, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Egypt, Brazil and United States of America.

He won, among others, the International Association of Art Critics Prize in 1992, the Secil Architecture Prize in 1994 and the Valmor Prize in 1998, 2008, 2010 and 2017.

He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Portuguese Republic in 1999 and won the Pessoa Award in 2008.