Cursos / 1º Ciclo / Faculty of Architecture and Arts :: Design

CULTURA PORTUGUESA DO DESIGNER - 2025/2026

3º curricular year
Semestralidade: 2nd semester
ECTS: 2

Teachers

Leading Teacher: Prof. Doutor Rui Alexandre
Assistant Professor: Prof. Doutor Rui Alexandre

Class type and School hours

Teórica : 2 Horas

Teaching Language

Portuguese

Main Aims/Objectives

- Encourage the capacity for critical articulation between various scientific domains inherent to Theory and History, related to the scientific domain of design;
- Understand the practice of design in specific social, cultural and economic contexts;
- Apply the nomenclatures and vocabulary specific to design;
- Analyze the multiplicity inscribed in the practice of design;
- Understand and recognize Portuguese society´s design projects and products.

Specific Aims/Objectives

- Provide students with tools and knowledge that will allow them to produce scientific knowledge in the field of design;
- Know how to identify author movements and strategic lines of each of the main movements that generated groups and/or schools, trends addressed, considering the context;
- Reflect on the relationship between the social, cultural and historical specificities of the Portuguese population and the practice of national design.

Skills to be acquired

- Identify and relate specific CPD concepts;
- Understand how design products contribute to the meaning/qualification of a particular social and cultural environment;
- Understand how new technologies and materials affect the traditional concept of object;
- Identify, analyze and understand the specificities that characterize design in Portugal, relating them to its cultural history.

Teaching Procedures

Exposure and explanation of programmatic content; classroom discussions; and, critical works (individual and collective) related to the topics covered.

Programme

- The design practice in Portugal: socio-historical and cultural perspective;
- The role of design in portuguese society;
- Design and identity. The Portuguese design and national identity;
- The design and industry: Author´s design versus industrial design;
- Globalization: Global design vs. local design;
- Eco-design and sustainable design in Portugal.

Evaluation Type

The assessment will be carried out according to the General Evaluation Regulation of the Universidade Lusíada. The criteria for continuous assessment include: a) attendance and participation in classes; b) individual and / or group exercises proposed in the class and their discussion; c) written tests of knowledge assessment; and, d) the Frequency Test.

Teaching Resources

Exhibition classes;
Individual and / or group work on the thematic modules taught for presentation and debate.
Study visits (if they fit into the topics covered);
Analysis and research of texts and images;
Individual and / or group work.

Sustainability Objectives

Objectives within the lines of research of the Objetivos enquadrados nas linhas de investigação do Centro de Investigação em Território, Arquitetura e Design (CITAD) and, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, which respond to the program of this Curricular Unit.

Keywords

Designer; Culture; Portugal; Society; Identity.

Main Bibliography

Complementary Bibliography