Ana Marta Clemente, an architect and PhD student in Architecture at the University of Évora, took first place in the Design, Architecture and Urban Planning panel with her project entitled “Experimental Territory – matrix architecture as heritage in the Cape Verde islands”.
The project investigates the foundations of Cape Verdean housing culture, with an emphasis on the rural house as a space of identity, memory and endogenous knowledge. As stated in the summary of the research proposal, “the objectives include filling the existing knowledge gap regarding these legacies, adopting a decolonial perspective and participatory methodologies, as well as contributing to the recognition and safeguarding of an area associated with the Santo Antão Natural Park (PNCPRT). The house is approached as the structuring matrix of an integrated system of practices, knowledge and relationships with the place. The subject of analysis is houses currently in use, which bear witness to resilience and adaptation; beyond being built typologies, they represent cumulative processes of landscape construction, resulting from the long-standing symbiosis between the community and the biophysical environment. Cape Verde is interpreted as an experimental territory for socio-cultural practices. The aim is to contribute to the enhancement of this heritage, the dissemination of Creole cultural knowledge and the strengthening of recognition of the rural house as a structuring element of the cultural landscape.”
Ana Marta’s PhD proposal convinced the FCT assessment panel, securing the highest score in her respective scientific field.