The Symmetry Art and Science: 12th Symmetry Congress is an event co-organized by the International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry (SIS-Symmetry), the Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) of the Faculty of Architecture of Porto’s University (FAUP), and the Portuguese Geometry and Drawing Teachers’ Association (Aproged).
The Symmetry Art and Science: 12th Symmetry Congress will occur in the Faculty of Architecture of Porto’s University, Portugal (FAUP).
SIS-Symmetry President and Congress Chair: DÉNES NAGY | Research Gate
Dénes Nagy is a Hungarian-Australian mathematician and historian of science. He started his teaching career at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. His later appointments: Arizona State University (Tempe, 1986-88), University of the South Pacific (Suva, 1989-93), and University of Tsukuba (Tsukuba Science City, 1993-2000). In 2001, he was appointed Honorary Research Professor of the Institute for the Advancement of Research, ACU, Melbourne, Australia. He is the Founding President of SIS-Symmetry (International Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry), which has organized triennial art-science congresses and exhibitions in five continents since 1989. He was given many honorary titles and awards, including Doctor honoris causa, Honorary Membership of the SEMA, Award of Pro Scientia Absoluta Vera, and Katachi-prize. In 2012, the President of Hungary awarded him the Knight Cross.
He gave invited lectures in more than 20 countries in six languages. His publications include 27 volumes and 185 papers in English, Hungarian, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, Slovenian, and Persian. He was the co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Hungarian Scientists. His co-authors and co-editors include, among others, the Nobel-prize-winners Eugene P. Wigner and Danny Shechtman, the physicist Kodi Husimi, and the historian László Makkai.
Congress Honorary Chair: JOÃO PEDRO XAVIER | ORCID
João Pedro Xavier is an architect and full professor at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (FAUP), where he received his degree in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Architecture in 2005. He worked in Álvaro Siza’s office from 1986 to 1999. At the same time, he established his practice as an architect.
Xavier is a member of CEAU’s research teams – Architecture: Theory, Project, History (ATPH) – and – Digital Fabrication Laboratory (DFL). The relationship between architecture and mathematics, especially perspective, is his main research interest. He is the author of the books Perspectiva, Perspectiva Acelerada e Contraperspectiva (Perspective, Accelerated Perspective, and Retarded Perspective) and Sobre as Origens da Perspectiva em Portugal (About the Origins of Perspective in Portugal).
He is a correspondent editor of the Nexus Network Journal, and Council member of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE).
Xavier has been the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of Porto’s University since 2018.
Congress Chair and Organizing Committee Member: VERA VIANA | ORCID
Vera Viana studies polyhedral geometry and the relationships between Architecture and Mathematics as an Integrated Researcher at the Center of Studies of Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU) in the Faculty of Architecture of Porto’s University (FAUP). In 2020, Viana concluded the Ph.D. thesis Aplicações Didácticas sobre Poliedros para o Ensino da Geometria (Didactic Applications on Polyhedra for the Teaching of Geometry) in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro’s University (UTAD).
Director of Aproged (the Portuguese Geometry and Drawing Teachers’ Association) since 2009, Viana organizes the International Conferences Geometrias (since 2013), Jornadas Didácticas since 2016, and has been Editor-in-Chief of all Geometrias Conference-related publications and Aproged’s Bulletins since 2009.
Conference Report Editor for the Nexus Network Journal since 2014. Organizing Committee Member of the IS4SI 2021, the 4th Summit of the International Society for the Study of Information. Viana has been engaged, since 2001, in the development of educational resources with dynamic geometry, three-dimensional modeling, and algorithmic modeling software, having authored presentations, papers, book chapters, a website, and a Ph.D. thesis on the subject.
Organizing Committee Member: ANA NEIVA | ORCID
Ph.D. Architect by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP). Neiva is a practitioner architect (since 2007) and an Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, where she completed her Ph.D. with the thesis entitled Exhibiting Portuguese Architecture. Twentieth-century Curatorial Strategies. She has almost a decade of teaching experience as a lecturer on “History of Ancient and Medieval Architecture” at FAUP (2012-2019). She was an invited lecturer at Technical University of Munich (2019) to teach the seminar “Exhibiting through Space. Immersive Design in Architecture Exhibitions”, and currently, she is an assistant professor of Theory 1 – “General Theory of Space Organization” at FAUP.
Neiva is also a founding member of the research group “Narratives of the Educational Project in Architecture” of CEAU, within which she co-organized Ludic Architecture – IV International Meeting on Educational Devices and Spaces in Architecture (2017) and the International Conference Cycle Context(s) in Contemporary Architecture: 5 Continents”(2018-2019), and participated as speaker in international congresses and conferences. She coordinated the Department of Communication and Culture from FAUP between 2014 and 2016. She curated the exhibitions Porto – The City, the School and the masters for UABB 2015 (SZ) Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture (Shenzhen, 2015), Lo studio Ginoulhiac – 10 Anni. 10 Case. 10 Temi di Architettura (Bergamo and Porto, 2019) and co-authored the exhibition project for the exhibition Vicente. O Mito em Lisboa (Lisbon, 2019).
Organizing Committee Member: LUÍS MATEUS | ORCID
Luís Mateus is an Assistant Professor at the Lisbon School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon (FAUL), where he teaches geometry, computation, and architectural conservation. Graduated in architecture in 1999 and Ph.D. in architecture in 2012 with the thesis Contributos para o Projecto de Conservação, Restauro e Reabilitação. Uma metodologia documental baseada na fotogrametria digital e varrimento laser 3D terrestres (Contributions to Conservation, Restoration andRehabilitation planning. Documentary Methodology based in terrestrial digital photogrammetry and 3D laserscanning). He is a member of ArcHC_3D and Design and Computing Group research groups from the Research Centre in Architecture, Urbanism, and Design (CIAUD).
He specializes in and develops research in the use of laser scanning and photogrammetry applied to architectural documentation and conservation, as well as in applying parametric modeling methods to architectural design. He participated in several fundamental research projects with public and private entities, from governmental agencies to private companies. The main projects were Contributions to Architectural Heritage Conservation: Documentary Methodology Based in Terrestrial Digital Photogrammetry and 3D Laser Scanning, ReabOP and Ren4EEniEQ. He publishes regularly and supervised several masters and PhD thesis and, recently, supervised two Marie Curie research projects. In the Faculty of Architecture, he was a member of the board of administration (2014), vice-president of the scientific board (2017/2018), and currently is its vice-president. He is vice-president of APROGED.
Organizing Committee Member: MARCO GINOULHIAC | ORCID
Marco Ginoulhiac (1971 Bergamo, Italy) is an associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, teaching the course: “The Ludic Construction of Architecture”, “Design Studio 3” and “Housing Design”. He is author of some books and several articles around these subjects. He organized international events like conferences, workshops and exhibitions both in Portugal and abroad. He lectured in China, Czech Republic, Hungary, Spain and Germany as guest speaker or as Honorary Fellowship Professor.
He belongs to the Executive Board of the Resdomus Architectural Review, to the scientific board of CIAUD – Centro de Investigação em Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Design from FA-ULisboa, and the review panel of the Revista 2i: Estudos de Identidade e Intermedialidade from UMinho.
He is responsible for the Erasmus mobility at FAUP and a member of CEAU – Center for Studies on Architecture and Urbanism.
Organizing Committee Member: PEDRO DE AZAMBUJA VARELA | ORCID
Pedro de Azambuja Varela is an architect who graduated in 2006 from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto (FAUP), where he also received his Ph.D. in Architecture in 2020 with the thesis entitled Reconstruction of a Stereotomy, for a Multi-Semantic Stereotomic Approach.
He worked in architecture offices in Porto, Vienna, and New York before establishing his practice AZVAvisuals promoting innovative work in advanced 3D modeling and rendering, as well as in programming and graphic and web design. In parallel, his architecture projects have resulted in published works in reference magazines and websites.
Research activity started in 2013 with regular publication of articles in conferences and journals such as ASA, eCAADe and Nexus. Member of the Digital Fabrication Laboratory (DFL) since its foundation, Pedro has contributed to various projects dependent on algorithmic design and robotic fabrication.