Margarida Quintã, PhD student in Architecture, is one of the winners of Fernando Távora Award, delivered by the OASRN. This award is a tribute to the architect Fernando Távora and consists on a travel grant worth 6,000 euros for the best research trip.

The Técnico student and Luís Ribeiro da Silva are the authors of the proposal “As Fronteiras do México”, which explores “the impact of architecture and urbanism affecting territorial demarcations, migrations and people’s well-being”.

Exploring the diversity of situations at the northern Mexican border with the United States of America, but also at the Southern border with Guatemala and Belize, the authors try to “think about the effectiveness of building physical barriers in the context of resolving some of the most pressing contemporary humanitarian and environmental issues”, as explained in the synopsis.

Margarida Quintã is currently a doctoral student at the IST-EPFL Joint Doctoral programme. Her scientific expertise focuses on 20th century heritage and climate responsive design in tropical contexts. She works at “Ursa” Studio in partnership with Luís Ribeiro da Silva since 2015.