As this is an emblematic number, 25, we decided to associate ourselves with the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April 1974 Portuguese Revolution. We challenged the architect and UAL professor, Inês Lobo, to invite authors from various disciplinary areas to share with us visions, articles and essays of their vision on the theme “The post-April city”. As a result, we publish a dossier with contributions from architecture, geography, anthropology, law, photography and landscape architecture. The authors wrote about the challenges of the April Revolution to a country, Portugal, a territory which was stagnant and underdeveloped, but also about how much has been done and what still needs to be done, not only to solve persistent problems, but to respond to the new challenges that have, in the meantime, emerged in the world. Being a topic impossible to exhaust, we believe that the contributions we publish constitute unique and current perspectives to better understand the past, present and future of the city and democracy in Portugal.

We also published four articles resulting from original research on representative 20th century architectural projects, still little studied: Delia Ioana Sloneanu presents an investigation about the residence for the Portuguese embassy in Brasília, by Ricardo Bak Gordon and Carlos Vilela Pike; Maria Ana Castro Caldas Aboim Inglez analizes the Pools of Bellinzona, by Aurelio Galfetti, Flora Ruchat-Roncati and Ivo Trümpy; Sofia Pinto Basto establishes a parallel between the book Venezia Minore and the project for the INAIL Headquarters in Venice, by Egle Trincanato; finally, Victor Beiramar Diniz investigates and analyzes Eduardo Anahory’s floating beach-pool-project in Estoril.

This issue also includes a book review by João Miranda on The substance of things, by José Adrião.

At a time when debate on scientific research has taken a new turn – namely due to the demands regarding indexation and a normalization of knowledge dissemination – and the role of the researcher in architecture requires redefinition, we consider crucial that different and innovative perspectives and approaches contribute to thought and reflection on the city and on architecture. The fact that Estudo Prévio is a journal developed in project-oriented school of architecture encourages publication of practical experiences that may contribute to a wider theoretical framework. Nevertheless, more conventional approaches deriving from ongoing research should still be welcome.

As a result, this is a heterogeneous issue that includes an interview with landscape architect João Gomes da Silva, who is also a lecturer at UAL, a wide variety of research papers on the city of Lisbon, as well as papers evidencing research conducted for PhD theses on different themes such as recent Turkish architecture or the column as an architectural element. Two reviews on books on the city of Lisbon are also included – “A internacionalização de Lisboa – paradiplomacia de uma cidade” and “Lisboa. Uma cidade em movimento“, making this an issue focused on the city we live in at a time when Lisbon expands at tourist and economic levels.

At a time when the debate on scientific research has gained a new perspective – namely regarding indexation together with standardization of the conveying of knowledge – and that research on architecture has increased, we believe we should focus on innovative themes and different approaches which contribute to research on the city and on architecture. Since Estudo Prévio is a journal linked to an architecture school with a strong tradition in project design has led us to publishing on practice that may contribute to a broader theoretical thought. However, we cannot ignore more conventional approaches, resulting from decades of scientific production.

Thus, we invited Professor Ana Tostões, full professor at a Portuguese university, to coordinate and organize a set of papers on a specific theme/issue using different approaches. We proudly accepted to organize an issue devoted to Nuno Teotónio Pereira, which gathers texts from different authors in memoriam of this important Portuguese architect. Our collection also includes the news of a book by Nuno Teotónio Pereira, recently launched by Lisbon City Hall, by Rita Megre. The issue includes a review by André Fernandes of Han Meyer’s book, City and Port. Finally, in this issue we interviewed architect Telmo Cruz.

At a time when debate on scientific research has taken a new turn – namely due to the demands regarding indexation and a normalization of knowledge dissemination – and the role of the researcher in architecture requires redefinition, we consider crucial that different and innovative perspectives and approaches contribute to thought and reflection on the city and on architecture. The fact that Estudo Prévio is a journal developed in project-oriented school of architecture encourages publication of practical experiences that may contribute to a wider theoretical framework. Nevertheless, more conventional approaches deriving from ongoing research should still be welcome.

In this context, we invited the architect and professor Paulo Tormenta Pinto and challenged him to coordinate and organize a thematic dossier – “Building in the South – Laboratory for the foundations of contemporary Portuguese architecture” -, addressing different approaches to this theme / problem. The theme is itself a new approach to the architecture made in the South, and brings together a group of authors and studies involved in the dissemination of the research related to this topic, revealing innovative and relevant research, still little explored and published. This issue also includes three articles resulting from our direct invitation to the speakers of a series of conferences held at Da/UAL dedicated to architectural production in the southern hemisphere by key authors on these topics such as Ana Tostões and Ana Magalhães.

At a time when debate on scientific research has taken a new turn – namely due to the demands regarding indexation and a normalization of knowledge dissemination – and the role of the researcher in architecture requires redefinition, we consider crucial that different and innovative perspectives and approaches contribute to thought and reflection on the city and on architecture. The fact that Estudo Prévio is a journal developed in project-oriented school of architecture encourages publication of practical experiences that may contribute to a wider theoretical framework. Nevertheless, more conventional approaches deriving from ongoing research should still be welcome.

In this context, we invited for the next issues authors with relevant work in research towards to the city, architecture and territory. These editors are invited to coordinate and organize thematic dossiers, with different approaches the themes. The first guest, the anthropologist Maria Assunção Gato, specialist in research on house and spatial anthropology of space, coordinated the dossier “Ethnographies of the house, values and ways of living”, gathering a group of authors and studies with whom we believe we have taken an important step in the dissemination of research related to home, a fundamental and comprehensive research area, but still little explored and published. This issue also includes two articles, in response to our open invitation for article submissions, one dedicated to the contribution of geographic information technologies to territorial planning (Susana Brito and Teresa Santos) and another to research in architectural design (Joana Vilhena).

At a time when research in Architecture is still open and even in question, we wanted to cross themes that addressed contemporary and recurrent issues in the profession, from the Crisis and Participated Architecture to the Suburbs and Neighborhoods. In this issue we publish an interview with the architect Ricardo Carvalho, current Director of the Department of Architecture at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, an article in the area of Law, opening the range to interdisciplinary collaborations, a theoretical research article on architecture and a dossier of three masters dissertations, aiming to disseminate the quality research carried out at universities, in this case at UAL and ISCTE.

Through the interviews, we surveyed the academic and professional paths of internationally recognized architects, who cross practice with the academy and, in some cases, with research and publication/dissemination of Architecture. We also reviewed books that are unavoidable references in ateliers and universities and presented more recent ones, which also became important to think about the territories of architecture and knowledge. The commitment to a bilingual journal and image quality were assumed the beginning of the project, and supported by UAL as fundamental for the dissemination of the contents. We reached forty thousand readers over these four years.

The architects interviewed in the various Estúdio Prévio issue were very determined saying that the professional practice in which they are involved – carrying out architectural projects, from territorial analysis to the completion of the work, going through all the research processes and selection of constructive methodologies and respective materials – is in itself a valid method of research, as it follows the procedure of any other type of investigation: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis. Starting from a set of principles, new questions arise – which, curing the process, are acepted, rejected and solved in a finished work, shared by all.

The problems raised by recent doctoral theses in Research through Architecture focuse on its validity as an object of study, especially when architects/researchers choose to work on their own architectural production. In a way, this new doctoral aspect forces us to be more open about the themes validated by the academy since, until very recently, only research was carried out on the History of Architecture (monographs and thematic historiographies), Urbanism or Technique in Architecture (constructive methods and constitutive elements).

Currently, we live in a moment without universal dogmas, but it can be said that, in terms of house designs, we observe a Japanese-influenced fashion that paints everything white and frees spaces for hybrid uses, functionally disaggregated from everyday reality. On the other hand, with the growing remodeling market in “Crisis Europe”, there is a critical inertia that uses the same imagery for all projects: light gray wooden or self-leveling floors, walls, ceilings, kitchen and bathroom. white bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, 2 or 3 bathrooms…

Surveys and investigation works such as the Popular Architecture Survey or the studies on Social Housing carried out by LNEC under the coordination of the architect Nuno Portas or, internationally, studies on housing carried out by authors such as Engels, Alison and Peter Smithson, contributed to understand the different domestic architectures in specific territories, cultures and populations. On the other hand, the global dissemination of architectural projects added the number of possible references, prone to the uncritical use of collages and transposed influences. for the house project. At the same time, paradoxically, there is a growing interest in local materials and techniques and in their integration into contemporary architecture works. Currently, we live in an age without universal dogmas, but it can be said that, in terms of house designs, there is a Japanese-influenced fashion that paints everything white and frees spaces for hybrid uses, functionally separated from everyday reality. On the other hand, with the growing remodeling market in the “Europe of Crisis”, we are witnessing a critical inertia that uses the same imagery for all projects: wooden floors or light gray self-leveling, walls, ceilings, kitchen and bathroom. white bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, 2 or 3 bathrooms…

Countries with emerging economies are and will always be a breeding ground for new proposals, new projects, enabling them to achieve theoretical hypotheses and even projects which initially might have been difficult to handle. Over the past twenty years, we have seen the worldwide development and economic growth of several countries – China, United Arab Emirates, and more recently, Angola and Brazil, among others – and following that same growth has always been the possibility of implementing many projects and proposals for a new century.

At a time when most of our architects are emigrating, or working from Portugal for emerging countries we propose with this issue to open the overdue debate on the type of activities done by Europeans in emerging countries and also on the type of requests made from those countries, to know what they think about the work of those emigrating professionals or “remote control” professionals. For a new generation of architects, freed from the colonial past, the personal challenge is working in countries, where they can speak the same language, and also the professional opportunity of seeing their projects built. However, even if – as referred by José Adrião in his interview in this issue – young architects are well prepared from a technical and conceptual point of view, when facing the reality many questions and doubts appear: what kind of architecture can be made in these contexts and how? What is expected from the architect is it a “foreign” professional, an agent of modernity, or a professional that integrates models and promotes continuity? How do you overcome existing barriers (linguistic, cultural, technical and even the size of the territories)? How to take advantage of what can be innovative and potentially interesting in territories under construction?

Despite the efforts of some initiatives to resolve various peri-urban areas, the truth is that most of them resulted in specific arrangements for some medium-sized cities and did not indicate any resolution for the disconnectivity of the various suburban centers, still dependent on the mother city. The figure of the planner – whether he is an urban planner or an architect – is often distant from any discussion of the suburbs, resulting in the production of territorial management instruments without a “concept”, which results in an overlap of instruments that do not help to solve problems effectively, creating growing contradictions. Even in terms of architectural production, few author architects receive orders placed in the suburbs, generating a professional myth that “you can’t do anything properly” except in the cities – excluding, of course, holiday homes or holiday homes. weekends, in bucolic spaces.

In this context, the widening of the discussion, and the possible demystification of the suburbs, is hampered by the ambiguity and dispersion that the concept is capable of assimilating. The suburb has become a word capable of integrating and signifying completely disparate spaces such as the segregated neighborhood (r), the periphery, the city limits, the neighborhoods, the industrial zones, satellite cities, outskirts, garden- cities, informal city, non-place, or, peri-urban territories.