Portugal
Manuel Graça Dias
Manuel Graça Dias was born in Lisbon, in 1953.
Architect (ESBAL, 1977), he began his profession in Macau, as a collaborator of Arqtº Manuel Vicente (1978-1981). Throughout his career he was an assistant at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Lisbon (1985-1996), Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto (since 1997) and Guest Full Professor at the Department of Architecture at the Autonomous University of Lisbon (since 1998), which he also directed (between 2000 and 2004).
In Lisbon, the city where he lived and worked, he created, in 1990, the atelier CONTEMPORÂNEA, with Egas José Vieira. The house he restored in 1979, in Graça, Lisbon, in association with António Marques Miguel, received the Valmôr Honorable Mention (1983); he also obtained 1st; place in the competition for the construction of the new headquarters of A.A.P./Banhos de S. Paulo (currently, Ordem dos Arquitectos), in Lisbon (1991), in association with Egas José Vieira.
He was the author of a wide range of articles criticizing and disseminating architecture in specialized newspapers and magazines (since 1978), and was required to attend a vast number of conferences, both in Portugal and abroad.
É Graça Dias is credited with authoring several books criticizing or disseminating architectural themes, highlighting: 30 examples/Portuguese architecture at the turn of the 20th century< /em> (2004); Art, architecture and the City: About “Monumental Lisbon” by Fialho de Almeida(2011); 10x10 Pizza a pezzi/15x15 Business incubator (with Egas José Vieira, 2011).
Manuel Graça Dias has works built in Almada, Braga, Chaves, Guimarães, Lisbon, Porto, Vila Real, Macau, Madrid, Seville and Frankfurt that have been published in the specialized press and have been shown in collective or individual exhibitions.
Co-author of the controversial Urban Reconversion Study of Estaleiro da Lisnave, in Almada, he worked, in the last years of his career, with Egas José Vieira, from the projects: Aljube Museum, Resistance and Freedom, (Lisbon); Cultural, Social and Sports Complex in Lapa, (Lisbon); restoration of the Luis de Camões Theater, (Lisbon); Permanent exhibition at the Olive Tree and Olive Oil Museum, in Mirandela (2004-2014), a building of which they were also the authors.
The Municipal Theater of Almada (Teatro Azul, 1998-2005) which he designed with Egas José Vieira and Gonçalo Afonso Dias was nominated for the Secil Prize, 2007, for the Mies van der Rohe Prize, 2007 and for the Aga Khan Prize, 2008/2010.
Manuel Graça Dias and Egas Joséé Vieira won the AICA/Ministry of Culture (Architecture) Prize, in 1999, for his entire built work.
In 2006, Manuel Graça Dias was honored by St. Exª the President of the Portuguese Republic, Dr. Jorge Sampaio, with the degree of Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique. He passed away in 2019, on March 24th.
