ABOUT THE GROUP
Sustenta - Laboratory for Sustainable Design is a research group from the Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design (CIAUD) of the Lisbon School of Architecture (FA-ULisboa), since November 2012. Sustenta aims to support projects, studies or any research/training activities in the area of Eco-architecture, by developing methodologies for sustainable intervention, not only on traditional building techniques with the help of new technologies, low cost self-design and heritage rehabilitation, but also on territory planning based on Geographic Information Systems.
Its team’s skills range from developing research projects (in the theoretical and/or applied aprroach) in Architecture, Urban Planning and Design, as well as training and dissemination activities of scientific knowledge, especially through the provision of postgraduate training courses, workshops, seminars and curriculum monitoring internships.
OBJECTIVES
Promote the concept of Sustainable Design, regarding the natural resources’ suitability and its cultural recognition, as an alternative intervention methodology to current territorial planning and architectural practices
Support and encourage the practice of Transdisciplinary Research in Architecture, Urbanism and Design, through the development of a network between the community, the academy, and the economic agents
Establish analysis (and synthesis) methods of the territory that allow to define appreciation criteria of all human productive activity (transformation of the environment, production of the habitat, and resource exploitation) from an ecological perspective
Elaborate studies on the landscape dynamics in terms of its human occupation, land use, and resource consumption, by diagnosing their future impacts
Find Compatibility Principles, in the habitat’s construction practice, including artefacts’ production, and territorial management tools, contributing to the integrated development of local communities and the protection of its landscape
Explore participatory design methods and the applications of a "Green Architecture" concept
TEAM
Sustenta's team consists of a group of researchers from many different areas of expertise, from Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Architecture, Design, Philosophy, History and even Sociology.