Fernando Távora

Who was Fernando Távora?

Fernando Luís Cardoso de Meneses de Tavares e Távora, ComSE, simply known as Fernando Távora, was a renowned Portuguese architect and professor.

The sixth of seven children and third of three sons of José Pinto Tavares de Mendonça Ferrão or José Ferrão de Tavares e Távora and wife Maria José do Amaral Ferrão Lobo Machado or Maria José Lobo de Sousa Machado Cardoso de Meneses, of the Viscounts of Paço de Nespereira, he inherited from his mother the House of Covilhã. He graduated in architecture from the Porto School of Fine Arts in 1952. Having sat the examination in Fine Composition for Professor of Architecture, he was later invited to become a Professor at the school.

Later on, Távora became "President of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto" and university professor at the same faculty, as well as professor of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra, by which he was made a Doctor Honoris Causa.

He was granted a scholarship by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Institute for Culture in the United States and Japan in 1960.