In February 2019, the 7th International Conference on the History of Architecture, a joint project between the Universities of Porto and Santiago de Compostela, will be held at the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Santiago de Compostela.

In each of the days, a central theme was selected to promote historical, artistic and heritage reflection and contribute to an understanding of the relationships between society, the individual, the city and built objects. Given the importance of the topic and its complexity of analysis for this journey, the façade was chosen as the object of study.

The VII Conference follows the objectives that have been practiced and developed in the six previous editions held at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto. The promotion of study and research is essential for the dissemination of architectural heritage and the safeguarding and protection of built objects. Understanding and teaching the meaning of architecture is a fundamental tool for its preservation.

With the support of CITCEM – Centro de Investigação Transdisciplinar Cultura, Espacio, Memoria and the Iacobus Research Group – Projectos y Estudios sobre Património Cultural, the aim is to nurture the good practice of relations between researchers and students from Portuguese, Italian and Spanish universities with the aim of analyzing the role that architectural façades play in our cities.

With the generic title of La cita è come una grande casa…, a phrase taken from the text De re aedeficatoria by León Battista Alberti, we propose to approach the study of the façade as a singular phenomenon in the exercise of architecture and the city. The constant theme in the history of architecture has become a primary object for architects, urban planners and citizens.

It proposes a broad debate on the forms and functions of the façade, understood as a unique element of the architecture and the building or as a fundamental element of the urban environment in which each building is located.

It will be possible to analyze and study cases in which the façade, after overcoming constructive principles, has become an element of the imagination in gardens, altarpieces or books. In addition to the essential values of the façade’s function, the aim is to explore other symbolic values introduced by architects and patrons on the façades of buildings that transformed them into true manifestos of the principles and desires that nourished them and that became visual landmarks and references for citizens living in the city. Today’s society, which has a particularly close relationship with visuality, has taken the façade out of the context of the building and turned it into an iconic and advertising product.

Following Alberti’s teachings, “the city is like a big house, and the dwelling house is a small city”, and the façades of the buildings also play the role of “neighbor”. They are spaces of reference in everyday relationships for those who live in the city. They are true spaces of memory and identity for the “House”.