ABSTRACT
In Portugal architectural education achieved “higher education” status with the 1950-57 artistic education reform, leading the way for a new social and economic recognition, nevertheless still far from the status of “stronger” disciplines like engineering. Within the only two schools in the country, the fine-arts schools of Lisbon and Porto (ESBAL and ESBAP, since 1836), it was a moment of institutional transition, from the old “beaux-arts” system to a “modern” model of education, in which the vocational and artistic issues were mitigated in favour of social and exact sciences, more alike “modern” ideals of social, technological and economic progress.
