It is with deep sadness that Docomomo Portugal communicates that the Portuguese architect Bartolomeu Costa Cabral passed away last 20th April 2024. Docomomo Portugal wishes to convey the sincerest condolences at the passing of the renowned architect and urban designer, to his family and friends.

Born in 1929 in Lisbon, Bartolomeu Costa Cabral was regarded as one of today’s leading architects in Portugal, where he lived and worked. He obtained his architectural degree from the Lisbon School of Fine Arts (ESBAL) in 1957. Still in this year, he collaborated with Nuno Teotónio Pereira and Nuno Portas under the guidance of Frederico George in the exhibition “Cooperativismo Habitacional no Mundo” [Housing Cooperativism in the World] promoted by the Lisbon Tenants’ Association – which was a statement already of Bartolomeu Costa Cabral’s interest in people’s perception of living in housing that was intended to be modern and comfortable, even at low cost – a topic that is now in 2024 once again on the national and international agenda.
During his studies, in 1956 he joined the Lisbon City Council’s Studies and Urbanisation Office, a position he held until 1959. He initiated his professional career in the studio of Nuno Teotónio Pereira (1922-2016), with whom he designed the Bloco das Águas Livres (Lisbon, 1953-1955), a collective housing building classified as a Monument of Public Interest.
Between 1959 and 1968, Bartolomeu Costa Cabral developed several studies n social housing for the Technical Housing Office (GTH), Federation of Pension Funds, Lisbon City Council and Housing Development Fund (FFH – now IHRU), having at the same time, between 1962 and 1967, undertook internships in Paris at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batîment; in London at the Greater London Council; and in Lisbon at the National Civil Engineering Laboratory (LNEC).

His professional activity is characterized by co-authored work, particularly in the 1960. After working in Nuno Teotónio Pereira’s office, he worked between 1967 and 1968/69 with Francisco Conceição Silva and Maurício de Vasconcellos, namely on urban scale projects as the Urban and Tourist Development Plan for Sector IV in Algarve or Quinta dos Ingleses. From 1969 to 1997, he collaborated with Atelier GPA, a design studio run by the architects Maurício de Vasconcellos and Luís Alçada Baptista were he were the responsible for the design of public buildings, including the headquarters of the Portuguese Society of Authors (Lisbon, 1971-1975) and university and polytechnic buildings, such as the University of Beira Interior, (Covilhã 1973-93), the University of Minho (Guimarães, 1986), the Higher Agricultural School of Bragança (1986) and the Higher Agricultural School of Santarém (1988).

His extensive work encompasses the Castelo Primary School (Lisbon, 1959-1970), his first signed project; the 600-dwelling housing complex (co-authored with Nuno Portas, 1961) and the 300-dwelling housing complex (co-authored with Nuno Teotónio Pereira, 1963), both in the Olivais Sul neighborhood, Lisbon; the Pego Longar neighborhood, which formed part of the SAAL operations (Sintra 1975-1995); the Tomar School of Technology (1988); the Faculty of Engineering of the Portuguese Catholic University (Sintra, 1996-2002); the Central Library and Wool Museum of the University of Beira Interior (Covilhã, 1998-2003); the Quinta das Conchas Station of the Lisbon Underground (1998-2002) and single-family houses in Lisbon and Beja.

In addition to his notable contributions as an architect, he served as a professor at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and held executive roles in the National Union of Architects and the Portuguese Section of the International Union of Architects, having been an active member of the Portuguese Order of Architects

Throughout his career, Bartolomeu Costa Cabral has received numerous awards, including the Eugénio dos Santos prize in 1997 (awarded jointly with Nuno Teotónio Pereira for the remodeling of the Taborda Theatre in Lisbon), the Raul Lino architecture prize in 1978 (for the CGD office in Sintra), the Valmor prize honorable mention in 2009 (for individual housing in Travessa da Oliveira, Lisbon), AICA award (2019) and was distinguished with Grau de Grande-Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique in 2022.

In 2019 he donated his archive to Fundação Marques da Silva, which can be accessed here.

The notice on his passing at the Portuguese Order of Architects can be read here (in Portuguese).