Margarida Quintã

Margarida Quintã is an architect from Porto. She graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (2007) and received her doctorate with Distinction and Praise from the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2019). Under the title ‘Modern Schools in Angola, 1961-1975: Design with Climate and Heritage’, her doctoral thesis examines the climatic performance of Angolan architecture during the last years of Portuguese colonial rule. Through a critical analysis of the passive environmental control systems developed for what were the most intrinsically tropical of modern architectures, the thesis demonstrates the symbiotic relationship between the problems of climatic adequacy and environmental comfort. He practises architecture in partnership with Luís Ribeiro da Silva at the ursa architecture studio in Porto, seeing architecture as a form of knowledge and its practice as the identification, formulation and resolution of problems affecting the human condition.