Portuguese architect Alexandre Vieira Pinto Alves Costa was born in Porto in 1939 and graduated in Architecture from ESBAP - Escola Superior de Belas-Artes do Porto in 1966. After an internship at LNEC - Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (National Civil Engineering Laboratory), he dedicated himself to his career as a freelance professional from 1970 onwards. Since 1972 he has been teaching at ESBAP, in the subjects of Design and History of Architecture, becoming a Full Professor at FAUP - Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, in 1996, having been a member of the Faculty's Installation Committee as Chairman of the Board of Directors. He has also been a member of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra since 1991. He has taken part in various courses, seminars, round tables and conferences in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Holland, Angola, Brazil and Canada, mainly on topics related to the teaching and history of architecture. He dedicates a large part of his time to teaching and research in the field of the History and Theory of Architecture, resulting in a large part of his work being co-authored with various architects, including Sérgio Fernandez and Camilo Cortesão. Between 1974 and 1976, he worked with the Coordinating Committee of SAAL/Norte (Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local), being responsible for the Planning and Project Support sector. SAAL was a project carried out in the post-25 April period which, through commissions made up of multidisciplinary teams (architects, sociologists, among others), supported residents' associations with the aim of improving their living conditions, seeking self-building, given the scarcity of resources, paying particular attention to the references and needs of each group of people.
