Docomomo Portugal is thrilled to announce that its chair, Professor Ana Tostões, was elected to be member of Académie d’Architecture!
On 19 November, Professor Ana Tostões will be formally inducted as a Member of the Académie d’Architecture in Paris. This distinction places her among an elite group of internationally renowned figures in architecture, joining the ranks of Rafael Moneo, Jean Nouvel, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Gonçalo Byrne, Paulo David, Álvaro Siza, and Eduardo Souto de Moura.
In 2023, Ana Tostões received the “Médaille de la Critique et des Publications, Prix Académie d’Architecture”, an award recognising individuals who have enriched architectural discourse through their writings, publications, and research.
Founded by Colbert in 1671, the Académie d’Architecture is dedicated to promoting architectural excellence, the quality of spatial planning, architectural education, environmental improvement, and the preservation of archives related to the history of architecture.
Ana Tostões is an architect, architectural critic and historian, Full Professor at Técnico – University of Lisbon, and researcher at CiTUA. Since 2021, she has served as President of AICA (International Association of Art Critics), Portuguese section and since 2024 as chair of Docomomo Portugal. Internationally acknowledged for her leadership in the preservation of modern architecture and the sustainable reuse of the contemporary built environment, she has acted as consultant for major renovation projects worldwide.
She has been a Visiting Professor at several prestigious institutions, including the University of Porto, University of Tokyo, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, Universidad de Navarra, and Politecnico di Milano, and has completed sabbatical periods at the University of Texas at Austin, UFRGS Porto Alegre, and the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie.
Her research focuses on the history of modern architecture and urbanism, particularly on the cultural exchanges between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Expanding from her work on Portugal, she developed an international research framework exploring the global significance of Portuguese architectural culture, with studies on Brazil, Portuguese-speaking Africa, and Asia. She has been a grantee of the Oriente Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
As President of Docomomo International for 12 years, based at the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and at Técnico – University of Lisbon, she helped transform the organization into a global reference for modern architecture, increasingly addressing contemporary challenges such as climate change, conflict, and digital transformation. As editor of the Docomomo Journal (indexed by Scopus), she published 25 issues featuring contributions from more than 100 scholars worldwide, disseminating leading-edge architectural research.
Her curatorial work has played a central role in bringing Portuguese architecture to international audiences. She has curated major exhibitions such as:
– “Portugal: Architecture of the 20th Century” (Deutsches Architektur Museum, Frankfurt; Galería de los Ministerios, Madrid; Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon)
– “Keil do Amaral: The Architect and the Humanist”
– “Portuguese Modern Architecture (1920–1970)”
– “Atelier Nuno Teotónio Pereira: Architecture and Citizenship”
– “The Gulbenkian Foundation Museum and Headquarters: Architecture of the 1960s”
– “1758: The Baixa Plan Today”
She also co-curated the centenary exhibition on Fernando Távora at the Marques da Silva Foundation and served as consultant for the 2023 Portuguese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (Fertile Futures). Her contributions have been recognised with the Order of Infante Dom Henrique, awarded by the President of Portugal in 2006.
Ana Tostões is the author of numerous influential publications, including:
– Idade Maior (2015) – awarded the Prize of the X Ibero-American Architecture and Urbanism Biennial
– Modern Architecture in Africa: Angola and Mozambique – awarded the Gulbenkian Prize of the Portuguese Academy of History (2014)
– Cure & Care: Architecture and Health (2020)
– Lisboa Moderna (2021)
– Modern Heritage. Reuse, Renovation, Restoration (2022)
– The Critical Monumentality of Álvaro Siza (co-editor, 2023)
– African Modernism (2024)
