Initiated teaching activity in 1982, in Architecture Course at Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto, with continuity to Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, where he teached Project.
PHD Doctor since 1999, with the thesis “Arquitectura e Museus em Portugal — Entre Reinterpretação e Obra Nova” (“Architecture and Museums in Portugal — Between reinterpretation and New Work”).
Guides PHD Thesis and, until 2010, the subject Thesis Project from PHD Course of Faculdade de Arquitectura.
From 2010 until 2018, he was FAUP’s Dean, having integrated the Universidade do Porto’s Senate during that time.
In the end of the 80s, co-founded the company CG+LSC, Arquitectos (www.cglsc.com) as an architect, in partnership with the architect Luís Soares Carneiro, where they develop a professional activity that extended from building project to land-use and territorial planning, having Architecture and Urban Design works, with special impact on public equipment programs.
He carried out projects for Maputo, Mozambique, where they were built tertiary programmes and housing buildings.
Keeps a professional and academic regular collaboration with diverse institutions (academic, professionals, from of civil society and the Public Administration).
Belongs to Casa da Arquitectura — Portuguese Centre for Architecture’s Board of Directors from 2008 until nowadays.
Between 1999 and 2004, was president of Ordem dos Arquitectos (Association of Architects – Regional and North Section), General Assembly’s President between 2005 and 2007 and President of the National Congress of Portuguese Architects in 2003.
Between 2003 and 2007, he was President of the Foundation DO.CO.MO.MO. Iberian.
Architect Researcher at Lusófona University in Lisbon. PhD. in architecture, University of Nantes, architectural and urban ambiances option. Project Coordinator at Parque EXPO where he managed the study of the Algiers PDAU (Urban Planning Project and Strategy) from 2013 to 2017, with a vision for 20 years 2015-2035. Project Manager for the preparation of the Rehabilitation Operations of the Medina of Meknes in Morocco for the B.E.I. He collaborated on several researches, notably on mediated sociability at the beginning of Internet practices. He worked on sound comfort in the inhabited milieu whose thesis is published. Has filed a patent from which he spent several years developing a predictive method of representing the soundscape, first with a grant of postdoc (FCT) and after with a granted investigation project (FCT) eyeHear Soundscapes. He is an international consultant in soundscape. Was consultant until Feb 2019, to the Wilaya of Algiers and CNERU on the question of the Plan of Algiers and the waterfront of the city.
João Borges da Cunha (Lisbon, 1973) holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the Catholic University of Portugal, and a Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon. His doctoral thesis, entitled «Representation, immersion and interiors: «Cultures of Space in “To the Lighthouse and “Buddenbrooks”», provides a comparative reading of two emblematic novels of the early 20th century, regarding their spatial, architectural and cultural backdrop. He has been an Assistant Professor as well as the Students Manager at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning in Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias [ULHT], Lisbon, where he’s been teaching in undergraduate and post-graduate level. He’s also a writer of fiction, having been awarded the Gulbenkian Foundation/ Branquinho da Fonseca Literary Prize, to his novella Amor de Miraflores. He’s a playwriter as well and has also been a set designer in several stage productions in Portugal.
AREAS OF INTEREST
Theory of Architecture, Architectural Culture, Visual Culture, Inter-arts Studies
MAIN PUBLICATIONS
Cunha, Borges da Cunha (2020), «Phantasmagorias of the Post-Colonial Interiors» in Papers to the 4th International Congress on Ambiances, Ambiances, Alloaesthesia: Senses, Inventions, Worlds 4th International Congress on Ambiances, Universidade de Santa Barbara, California, USA & Ambiances Network – CY Cergy Paris University. [Vol. 1, p. 210-215] [https://ambiances2020.ambiances.net/]
Cunha, Borges da Cunha (2018) «Cityspaces as Interior Settings: on an Inside Out Effect in the Cities Under New Capitalism» in Revista de Comunicação e Linguagem, nº 48, pp.67-77. [RCL – Cities of the Future No 48 (2018)]
Cunha, João Borges da (2013), «The Bernhardian Cachectonica: figures of architectural discomfort and distress in Thomas Bernhard’s fiction», in Gadanho, Pedro, Oliveira, Susana (Ed.), Once Upon a Place: Architecture & Fiction, Lisboa: Caleidoscópio; pp. 169-175.
Cunha, João Borges da, Lourenço, Jorge Fazenda (2011), Corpo, Arquitectura, Poema: Leituras inter-artes na poesia de Jorge de Sena, Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim.
Cunha, João Borges da (2010) «Amor de Miraflores» in Lissabon – Eine literarische Einladung, Herausgegeben von Gaby Wurster, Berlin: Salto.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
2016/ 2019 – Partner Member of e-FIADE – Exploring the Field of Interaction in Architectural Design Studio, coordinator TOBB-ETÜ University – Ankara/ Turkey, partners: Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, University of Zagreb/ Croatia, Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Intanbul/ Turkey, EAAE (European Association for Architectural Education), Paris/ France, EAAE (European Association for Architectural Education) Genève/ Switzerland.
Apr 2018 – Invited tutor in the European workshop MATERIART – the figure, coordinator: Tobb Ekonomi ve Teknoloji Üniversitesi, Tobb University of Economics and Technology, TOBB ETU – Ankara/ Turkey; partners: Fachhochschule Münster, FH Münster, Gr, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, İstanbul Technical University, ITU, Tr, aUniversidade de Lisboa, University of Lisbon, Ulisboa, Pt, a Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Lusófona University, ULHT, Pt, Panepistimio Thesalias, University of Thessaly, UTH, Gr, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eindhoven University of Technology, TU/e.
