Alexandre Saraiva Dias

Alexandre Saraiva Dias was born in Porto, Portugal, in 1974. He graduated in Architecture (2000) and obtained a postgraduate degree in Architecture, Territory, and Memory (2004) from the University of Coimbra, where he has been lecturing Construction V, Construction VI, and Architectural Design II in the Master’s Course in Architecture at the Department of Architecture since 2018. In 2019, he participated in the Erasmus Staff Mobility Teaching Programme at the National Technical University of Athens and the University of Limerick. In 1999, he collaborated with architect Pedro Maurício Borges at his studio in Lisbon, before starting his independent practice in 2000. He has been invited to participate in academic critique sessions, debates, conferences, and exhibitions. An award-winning architect, his work has been published in Portugal and internationally. He won First Prize in the International Design Competition Architectural Solution for the 'Zona das Alvenarias' of 'Bairro da Boavista' Social Housing in Lisbon (co-authored with Luís Spranger and Bruno Silvestre) and Colégio Dandélio in Coimbra (co-authored with Maria Amália Freitas). He also received an Honorable Mention in the Diogo de Castilho Prize 2017. His project for Bairro Padre Cruz Social Housing in Lisbon (co-authored with Luís Spranger and Bruno Silvestre) was exhibited in the Portuguese Representation at La Biennale di Venezia 2021 and was included in the RIBA International List 2018, the selection for the 11th Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism 2019, and the Enor Architectural Award 2020. Additionally, his project for the Headquarters and Logistic Centre of the Plural Pharmacy Cooperative in Coimbra (co-authored with Maria Amália Freitas) won the 2019 National Urban Rehabilitation Prize in the category of Best Commercial Intervention & Services and the Diogo de Castilho Prize 2019.