Francesca Vita (5914-B994-F485)

Curriculum Vitae

Francesca Vita

Francesca Vita is a junior researcher in architecture and post-colonial studies at DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte and a lecturer in design. She holds a PhD in Architecture (cum laude) from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (PT), which deepens into the topics of colonial legacy and domestic space in contemporary Guinea-Bissau. Since 2019 she has been disseminating her studies on domesticity and forms of dominance in international conferences, both as presenter and chair of session (highlighting SAH, EAHN, IASTE), being particularly interest in exploring counter-histories of architecture from late colonial to contemporary times. In 2022, she was awarded by IASTE with the Eleni Bastea Award. Currently, she is a post-doctoral researcher within the ERC project “Architecture Colonialism and Labour. The role and legacy of mass labour in the design, planning and construction of Public Works in former African territories under Portuguese colonial rule” by Ana Vaz Milheiro and lecturer in History and Theory of Interior design and Project at the at the University of the Algarve.

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Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Francesca Vita
Gender: Female

Citation names

Vita, Francesca

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 5914-B994-F485
ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6455-6583

Email addresses

francesca.vita0@gmail.com (Professional)

Websites

https://ciencia.iscte-iul.pt/authors/francesca-vita/cv (Scholar)

Knowledge fields

Humanities - Arts - Architectural design

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
Italian	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)	Proficiency (C2)
Portuguese	Advanced (C1)	Proficiency (C2)	Advanced (C1)	Proficiency (C2)	Advanced (C1)
English	Advanced (C1)	Proficiency (C2)	Advanced (C1)	Proficiency (C2)	Advanced (C1)
French	Elementary (A2)	Intermediate (B1)	Elementary (A2)	Intermediate (B1)	Elementary (A2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2016/10 - 2023/09/28 Concluded	Architecture (Doutoramento) Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal "Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel da colonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitar o espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	cum laude
2010/10/15 - 2013/04/23 Concluded	Design (Mestrado integrado) Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal "João Mendes Ribeiro: um caminho para refletir sobre a condição hodierna da prática da arquitetura e do design interiores." (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	18/20
2007/09 - 2010/09/21 Concluded	Design (Laurea) Major in Interiors Politecnico di Milano, Italy	18/20

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2025/01 - 2025/12	Postdoc (Research)	Associação Iscte Conhecimento e Inovação - Centro de Valorização de Transferência e Tecnologias CVTT, Portugal
	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal (...)
2024/03 - 2024/12	Contracted Researcher (Research)	Associação Iscte Conhecimento e Inovação - Centro de Valorização de Transferência e Tecnologias CVTT, Portugal

2020/08/07 - 2023/12	Researcher (Research)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2017/10 - 2022/10	Contracted Researcher (Research)	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
	Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal
2016 - 2016	Visiting Researcher (Research)	INEP Instituto de Estudos e Pesquisa, Guinea-Bissau

Teaching in Higher Education

	Category Host institution	Employer
2024/10 - Current	Invited Adjunct Teacher (Polytechnic Teacher)	Universidade do Algarve Escola Superior de Educação e Comunicação, Portugal

2016/09 - 2021/07	Visiting Teacher (Polytechnic Teacher)	Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
	Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal

Projects

Grant

	Designation	Funders
2024/01/01 - 2028/12/31	Architecture, Colonialism and Labour. The role and legacy of mass labour in the design, planning and construction of Public Works in former African territories under Portuguese colonial rule 101096606 ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal	Ongoing

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2023/03/01 - 2024/08/31	Women architects in former Portuguese colonial Africa: gender and struggle for professional recognition (1953-1985) / Mulheres Arquitectas na antiga África Colonial Portuguesa: género e luta pelo reconhecimento profissional (1953-1985) 10.54499/2022.01720.PTDC ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing
2021/03/29 - 2024/03/28	Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post-independence critical assessment (ArchWar 10.54499/PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020 ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing
2020/05 - 2023/10/31	European Middle Class Mass Housing (MCMH-EU) CA18137 Researcher ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal	European Cooperation in Science and Technology Concluded
2017/10/01 - 2022/09	Domestic Architecture in dialogue: the role of Portuguese colonisation in the way contemporary domestic space is built and inhabited in Guinea-Bissau SFRH/BD/130890/2017 PhD Student Fellow Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Concluded
2016/05/01 - 2019/12/31	Coast to Coast - Late Portuguese Infrastructural Development in Continental Africa (Angola and Mozambique): Critical and Historical Analysis and Postcolonial Assessment PTDC/ATP-AQI/0742/2014 ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Concluded

Outputs

Publications

Book	Vita, Francesca. Aires Mateus. Vila do Conde, Portugal: Verso da História. 2013. Published
Book chapter	Vita, Francesca. "The journey of Milanka Lima Gomes from Yugoslavia to Guinea-Bissau as General Director of Urban Planning and Projects (1973-1991)". 2024. Under revision Ana Cristina Fernandes Vaz Milheiro; Serrazina, Beatriz; Fiúza, Filipa; Vita, Francesca; Lima, Inês; Cardim, João; Silva, Leonor Matos. "Decentralising the core: notes on middle class mass housing in Portugal". In European Middle-Class Mass Housing: Past and Present of the Modern Community. Lisbon, Portugal: ISCTE-IUL, 2023. Published Vita, Francesca. "Guinea-Bissau". In Architectural Guide Sub-Saharan Africa. Western Africa: Along the Atlantic Ocean Coast, edited by Philipp Meuser; Adil Dalbai. Berlin, Germany: DOM publishers, 2021. Published
Conference paper	Vita, Francesca; Calado, Pedro. "Missing pieces. The Polytechnic Institute of Faro as a case study of modern tropical architecture in the southern of Portugal". Paper presented in Docomomo Portugal, Coimbra, 2025. Vita, Francesca. "Material, labour, construction sites. The military reordering of rural areas in Guinea-Bissau (1968-1974)". Paper presented in Military History Consortium, Lisbon, 2025. Vita, Francesca. "The Bungalow: counter-histories of a global colonial home". Paper presented in IASTE, Alexandria, 2025. Vita, Francesca; Beatriz Serrazina. "The neighbourhood. A research site for questioning the multiple agendas of colonial housing". Paper presented in Lieux et Enjeux "Housing Production in time of conflict", Paris, 2024. Francesca Vita. "Colonial and post-colonial housing: tools and research practices". Paper presented in Housing Histories, Milan, 2024. Francesca Vita. "Milanka Lima Gomes. A biography of an Immigrant Woman Architect in Guinea-Bissau. The Post-independence Period". Paper presented in Society of Architectural Historians - Virtual Conference, 2024. Vita, Francesca; Lima, Inês. "Large construction companies in the widespread of modern housing. A comparative analysis between Lisbon and Luanda". Paper presented in 8th International Congress on Construction History, Zurich, 2024. Accepted Vita, Francesca. "Between coding and decoding. Inquiring on the late colonial need for surveying the native settlements in Guinea-Bissau.". Paper presented in 76th Annual International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Montreal, 2023. Accepted Vita, Francesca. "Rethinking the domestic. Questioning the colonial discourse on the ‘civilized’ and ‘uncivilized’ house". Paper presented in Delving Inside: A New Research Symposium on Interiors, 2023. Accepted Vita, Francesca. "Unpacking colonial legacy in contemporary Guinea-Bissau. The case study of former military resettlements, built by the Portuguese army during the colonial war (1963-1974), and their post-independence layers of appropriation.". Paper presented in Africa challenges, 2021. Accepted Vita, Francesca. "“Middle-class exported”. The colonial inscription of European mass housing in Luanda, Maputo and Bissau.". Paper presented in Optimistic Suburbia II, Lisbon, 2021. Accepted Vita, Francesca. "“Uma Guiné Melhor”: the psychological action and the spatialization of population control in rural areas. The strategic villages in Guinea-Bissau between 1968-1973.". Paper presented in Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes. Architecture, cities, infrastructures, Lisboa, 2019. Accepted
Edited book	Cruz, Marta; Maria Milano; Ana Sofia Cardoso. Dwelling in transition – Experiences from Lockdown. Porto, Portugal. 2022. Published • Editor
Journal article	Vita, Francesca. "Carpentry and carpenters. The making of colonial interiors.". Aedificare (2025): Under revision Vita, Francesca. "The entanglement between traditions and the colonial spatiality. The resilience of the Guinean domesticities in the Ajuda Neighbourhood, Bissau.". Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 24 (2023): 39-50. Open access • Under revision Vita, Francesca. "Uma Guiné Melhor”: the psychological action and the spatialization of population control in rural areas. The strategic villages in Guinea-Bissau between 1968-1973". Africana Studia 39 (2023): 41-51. In press Vita, Francesca. "Património em causa. O legado colonial da política dos reordenamentos populacionais (1968-1973) no contexto rural contemporâneo da Guiné-Bissau.". CesContexto (Debates) 26 junho (2020): 120-128. https://www.ces.uc.pt/publicacoes/cescontexto/ficheiros/cescontexto_debates_xxvi.pdf. Open access • Published
Thesis / Dissertation	"Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel dacolonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitaro espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau". PhD, Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Arquitectura, 2023. "João Mendes Ribeiro: um caminho para refletir sobre a condição hodierna da prática da arquitetura e do design interiores". Master, 2013.
Website	Silva, Leonor Matos; Vita, Francesca. Women architects in colonial Africa. 2023. www.womarchstruggle.com.

Activities

Oral presentation

	Presentation title	Event name Host (Event location)
2021/11/19	Colonial legacy, dwelling culture and contemporary narratives. The case study of Ajuda neighborhood in Bissau.	KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm , Sweden)
2019/10/30	Dwelling and urban space in the city of Bissau	A urbanidade africana: diferentes perspetivas sobre a Guiné-Bissau DARQ, Departamento de Arquitectura - Universidade de Coimbra
2018/05	Arquitetura doméstica em diálogo. O papel da colonização portuguesa na forma de construir e habitar o espaço doméstico contemporâneo na Guiné-Bissau.	2° Encontro Nacional de Investigação em Arquitetura Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal)

Event organisation

	Event name Type of event (Role)	Institution / Organization
2024/11/30 - 2025/06/30	Exhibition "Architecture + Infrastructures. Questioning the contemporary landscapes 2010-2025" (2025/04/01 - 2025/06/30) Exhibition (Co-organisor)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal European Research Council, Belgium
2024/11/30 - 2025/04/01	Roundtable series 2 "Colonial and Post-colonial landscapes. Infrastructures, Labour, Transport" (2025/04/01 - 2025/04/01) Round table (Member of the Organising Committee)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2024/05/01 - 2024/11/29	Exhibition "Architecture+Infrastructures. Questioning the contemporary landscapes 2010-2024" (2024/11/21 - 2024/11/29) Exhibition (Co-organisor)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Val de Seine, France
2024/05/01 - 2024/11/22	Seminar "Lieux et Enjeux - Housing production in times of conflict (2024/11/21 - 2024/11/22) Seminar (Member of the Organising Committee)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Val de Seine, France
2024/04/09 - 2024/04/09	Roundtable Series 1 "Colonial and Post-colonial Landscapes. Infrastructures, Labour, War" (2024/04/09 - 2024/04/09) Round table (Member of the Organising Committee)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2023/09 - 2024/01/13	Seminar "Gender Struggle in architecture, colonialism and housing" (2023/09 - 2024/01/13) Seminar (Member of the Organising Committee)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal
2022/01/03 - 2023/01	Congress "Colonial and Post Colonial Landscapes - Architecture, Colonialism, War" (2023/01/18 - 2023/01/20) Congress (Member of the Organising Committee)	ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2022/02 - Current	Co-chaired session "The house types and the type of house: the colonial form for indigenous domesticity" Conference	European Architectural History Network, Athens 2024
2025/04/30 - 2025/05/04	Co-chaired session "Colonial Public Works: Architecture Beyond Labor Subalternity" Conference	Socienty of Architectural Historians Conference, Atlanta ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa DINÂMIA'CET Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território, Portugal Society of Architectural Historians, United States
2022/06 - 2023/01	Co-chaired session "War affairs: the entanglements between architecture and military apparatus in colonial Africa" Congress	Colonial and Post Colonial Landscapes Congress, Lisbon 2023
2022/06/15 - 2022/06/15	Architectural Histories Editorial Workshop Workshop	Architectural Histories Editorial Workshop
2021/08 - 2021/09	'Difficult Heritage' – Summer School Workshop	'Difficult Heritage' Universität Basel, Switzerland KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
2015/10/10 - 2015/10/11	Open House Lisbon - volunteering Festival	Open House Lisboa Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa, Portugal

Association member

	Society Organization name	Role
2020 - Current	DINÂMIA'CET-IUL - Centro de Estudos sobre a Mudança Socioeconómica e o Território	Integrated Researcher (without PhD)
2016 - 2016	INEP - Instituto nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa, Guinea-Bissau	Visiting Researcher

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2025/04/07 - 2025/04/07	Sessão #3 do "Seminário de Investigação"	Architecture (Licenciatura)	Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes, Portugal
2016/09 - 2021/07	Culture of Living \| Cultura do Habitar	Design de Interiores e Mobiliário (Licenciatura)	Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal
2016/09 - 2017/06	Project I - Interior	Design de Interiores e Mobiliário (Licenciatura)	Escola Superior de Artes e Design, Portugal

Distinctions

Award

2022	THE ELENI BASTEA AWARD International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, United States
2017	PhD Grant Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2013	Lifelong Learning Programme - Leonardo da Vinci - PLM Mobility 2012-1-IT1-LEO02-02539 European Union, Belgium