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Francesca Vita is a designer and a researcher. She holds a PhD degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (Portugal), sponsored by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. In 2015, she spent one year in Guinea-Bissau laying the groundwork for her future researches on domestic space in urban and rural environments, from civilian to military contexts. Her PhD deepens into the topic of colonial legacy in Guinea-Bissau focusing on domestic space: the house imagined, designed, built and then used and transformed. Since 2019 she has been disseminating her studies on colonialism, domesticity and violence in international conferences, been awarded in 2022 by the Eleni Bastea award from the IASTE - International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, for the best article presented about urban studies. Actually, she integrates the research projects ¿"ARCHWAR - Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post-independence critical assessment¿ (PTDC/ARTDAQ/0592/2020ISCTE) and the project ¿"Women architects in former Portuguese colonial Africa: gender and struggle for professional recognition (1953-1985)¿" (2022/01720/PTDC). From 2016 to 2021, she taught the annual-subject of ¿Dwelling Culture¿ in the interior design bachelor course at the ESAD (Matosinhos, PT) and she has been the art director of the documentary film cycle ¿DESIGNAgorà¿ on design and architecture for two consecutive editions (2019-2021).
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Identification

Personal identification

Full name
Francesca Vita
Gender
Female

Citation names

  • Vita, Francesca

Author identifiers

Ciência ID
5914-B994-F485
ORCID iD
0000-0001-6455-6583

Email addresses

  • francesca.vita0@gmail.com (Professional)

Websites

  • https://www.dinamiacet.iscte-iul.pt/research-team/Francesca-Vita (Scholar)

Knowledge fields

  • Humanities - Arts - Architectural design

Languages

Language Speaking Reading Writing Listening Peer-review
Italian Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2) Proficiency (C2)
Portuguese Advanced (C1) Proficiency (C2) Advanced (C1) Proficiency (C2) Advanced (C1)
English Advanced (C1) Proficiency (C2) Advanced (C1) Proficiency (C2) Advanced (C1)
French Elementary (A2) Intermediate (B1) Elementary (A2) Intermediate (B1) Elementary (A2)
Education
Degree Classification
2016/10 - 2023/09/28
Concluded
 Architecture (Doutoramento)
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal
"Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel da colonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitar o espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
2010/10/15 - 2013/04/23
Concluded
 Design (Mestrado integrado)
Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
"João Mendes Ribeiro: um caminho para refletir sobre a condição hodierna da prática da arquitetura e do design interiores." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)
 18/20
2007/09 - 2010/09/21
Concluded
 Design (Laurea)
Major in Interiors
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
 18/20
Affiliation

Science

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2020/08/07 - Current Researcher (Research) ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2017/10 - 2022/10 Contracted Researcher (Research) Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal
2016 - 2016 Visiting Researcher (Research) INEP Instituto de Estudos e Pesquisa, Guinea-Bissau

Teaching in Higher Education

Category
Host institution 		Employer
2016/09 - 2021/07 Visiting Teacher (Polytechnic Teacher) Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
Projects

Contract

Designation Funders
2023/03 - Current Women architects in former Portuguese colonial Africa: gender and struggle for professional recognition (1953-1985)
2022/01720/PTDC
Researcher
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2021/03/29 - 2024/03/28 Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post-independence critical assessment.
PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Ongoing
2020/05 - 2023/10/31 European Middle Class Mass Housing (MCMH-EU)
CA18137
Researcher
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
 European Cooperation in Science and Technology
Concluded
2017/10/01 - 2022/09 Domestic Architecture in dialogue: the role of Portuguese colonisation in the way contemporary domestic space is built and inhabited in Guinea-Bissau
SFRH/BD/130890/2017
PhD Student Fellow
Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
2016/05/01 - 2019/12/31 Coast to Coast - Late Portuguese Infrastructural Development in Continental Africa (Angola and Mozambique): Critical and Historical Analysis and Postcolonial Assessment
PTDC/ATP-AQI/0742/2014
ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
 Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Concluded
Outputs

Publications

Book
  1. Vita, Francesca. Aires Mateus. Vila do Conde, Portugal: Verso da História. 2013.
    Published
Book chapter
  1. Vita, Francesca. "The journey of Milanka Lima Gomes from Yugoslavia to Guinea-Bissau as General Director of Urban Planning and Projects (1973-1991)". 2024.
    Under revision
  2. Ana Cristina Fernandes Vaz Milheiro; Serrazina, Beatriz; Fiúza, Filipa; Vita, Francesca; Lima, Inês; Cardim, João; Silva, Leonor Matos. "Decentralising the core: notes on middle class mass housing in Portugal". In European Middle-Class Mass Housing: Past and Present of the Modern Community. Lisbon, Portugal: ISCTE-IUL, 2023.
    Published
  3. Vita, Francesca. "Guinea-Bissau". In Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa. Western Africa: Along the Atlantic Ocean Coast, edited by Philipp Meuser; Adil Dalbai. Berlin, Germany: DOM publishers, 2021.
    Published
Conference paper
  1. Vita, Francesca; Lima, Inês. "Large construction companies in the widespread of modern housing. A comparative analysis between Lisbon and Luanda". Paper presented in 8th International Congress on Construction History, Zurich, 2024.
    Accepted
  2. Vita, Francesca. "Between coding and decoding. Inquiring on the late colonial need for surveying the native settlements in Guinea-Bissau.". Paper presented in 76th Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Montreal, 2023.
    Accepted
  3. Vita, Francesca. "Rethinking the domestic. Questioning the colonial discourse on the ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’ house". Paper presented in Delving Inside: A New Research Symposium on Interiors, 2023.
    Accepted
  4. Vita, Francesca. "Unpacking colonial legacy in contemporary Guinea-Bissau. The case study of former military resettlements, built by the Portuguese army during the colonial war (1963-1974), and their post-independence layers of appropriation.". Paper presented in Africa challenges, 2021.
    Accepted
  5. Vita, Francesca. "“Middle-class exported”. The colonial inscription of European mass housing in Luanda, Maputo and Bissau.". Paper presented in Optimistic Suburbia II, Lisbon, 2021.
    Accepted
  6. Vita, Francesca. "“Uma Guiné Melhor”: the psychological action and the spatialization of population control in rural areas. The strategic villages in Guinea-Bissau between 1968-1973.". Paper presented in Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes. Architecture, cities, infrastructures, Lisboa, 2019.
    Accepted
Edited book
  1. Cruz, Marta; Maria Milano; Ana Sofia Cardoso. Dwelling in transition – Experiences from Lockdown. Porto, Portugal. 2022.
    Published • Editor
Journal article
  1. Vita, Francesca. "The entanglement between traditions and the colonial spatiality. The resilience of the Guinean domesticities in the Ajuda Neighbourhood, Bissau.". Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 24 (2023): 39-50.
    Open access • Under revision
  2. Vita, Francesca. "Uma Guiné Melhor”: the psychological action and the spatialization of population control in rural areas. The strategic villages in Guinea-Bissau between 1968-1973". Africana Studia 39 (2023): 41-51.
    In press
  3. Vita, Francesca. "Património em causa. O legado colonial da política dos reordenamentos populacionais (1968-1973) no contexto rural contemporâneo da Guiné-Bissau.". CesContexto (Debates) 26 junho (2020): 120-128. https://www.ces.uc.pt/publicacoes/cescontexto/ficheiros/cescontexto_debates_xxvi.pdf.
    Open access • Published
Thesis / Dissertation
  1. "Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel dacolonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitaro espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau". PhD, Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, 2023.
  2. "João Mendes Ribeiro: um caminho para refletir sobre a condição hodierna da prática da arquitetura e do design interiores". Master, 2013.
Activities

Oral presentation

Presentation title Event name
Host (Event location)
2021/11/19 Colonial legacy, dwelling culture and contemporary narratives. The case study of Ajuda neighborhood in Bissau.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm , Sweden)
2019/10/30 Dwelling and urban space in the city of Bissau A urbanidade africana: diferentes perspetivas sobre a Guiné-Bissau
DARQ, Departamento de Arquitectura - Universidade de Coimbra
2018/05 Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel da colonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitar o espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau. 2° Encontro Nacional de Investigação em Arquitetura
Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal)

Event organisation

Event name
Type of event (Role) 		Institution / Organization
2023/09 - 2024/01/13 Gender Struggle in architecture, colonialism and housing (2023/09 - 2024/01/13)
Seminar (Member of the Organising Committee)
 ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2022/01/03 - 2023/01 Colonial and Post Colonial Landscapes - Architecture, Colonialism, War (2023/01/18 - 2023/01/20)
Congress (Member of the Organising Committee)
 ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal

Event participation

Activity description
Type of event 		Event name
Institution / Organization
2022/02 - Current Co-chaired session "The house types and the type of house: the colonial form for indigenous domesticity"
Conference
 European Architectural History Network, Athens 2024
2022/06 - 2023/01 Co-chaired session "War affairs: the entanglements between architecture and military apparatus in colonial Africa"
Congress
 Colonial and Post Colonial Landscapes Congress, Lisbon 2023
2022/06/15 - 2022/06/15 Architectural Histories Editorial Workshop
Workshop
 Architectural Histories Editorial Workshop
2021/08 - 2021/09 'Difficult Heritage' – Summer School
Workshop
 'Difficult Heritage'
Universität Basel, Switzerland

KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
2015/10/10 - 2015/10/11 Open House Lisbon - volunteering
Festival
 Open House Lisboa
Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, Portugal

Association member

Society Organization name Role
2020 - Current DINÂMIA'CET-IUL - Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território Integrated Researcher (without PhD)
2016 - 2016 INEP - Instituto nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa, Guinea-Bissau Visiting Researcher

Course / Discipline taught

Academic session Degree Subject (Type) Institution / Organization
2016/09 - 2021/07 Culture of Living | Cultura do Habitar Design de Interiores e Mobiliário (Licenciatura) Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
2016/09 - 2017/06 Project I - Interior Design de Interiores e Mobiliário (Licenciatura) Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
Distinctions

Award

2022 THE ELENI BASTEA AWARD
International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, United States
2017 PhD Grant
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2013 Lifelong Learning Programme - Leonardo da Vinci - PLM Mobility 2012-1-IT1-LEO02-02539
European Union, Belgium