No sentido mais lato, os colégios universitários levantados em Coimbra (e, em menor expressão, em Évora) a partir de meados do século XVI e até ao final do Antigo Regime não constituem um tipo específico da arquitectura portuguesa. Existem, pelo menos, duas variantes tipológicas que têm que ver com a comunidade a que se destinavam os edifícios e com a resposta arquitectónica a que davam corpo. Desde logo, há que distinguir os colégios ditos “regulares”, destinados a comunidades das ordens religiosas que se implantaram à sombra da universidade – e que são a grande maioria – dos colégios “seculares”, em menor número, destinados a futuros eclesiásticos e/ou a leigos. Depois, e do ponto de vista arquitectónico, se os primeiros colégios regulares se socorreram frequentemente do esquema planimétrico conventual, com uma igreja volumetricamente autónoma e de acesso externo ladeada por um claustro, em redor do qual se organiza o colégio propriamente dito (os casos dos colégios da Graça e do Carmo, na Rua da Sofia, ou os de São Jerónimo e da Trindade na Alta), já os pouco numerosos colégios seculares se podem filiar, por sua vez, na casa nobre ou no palácio urbano, ainda que sob várias formas, das quais a mais comum será a do bloco quadrangular organizado em torno de um pátio central. É sobre este último tipo de colégio, o colégio secular, e com uma atenção particular sobre o colégio de São Paulo, que nos debruçaremos nesta comunicação.

A dissertação visa analisar os processos de implantação urbana das universidades ibéricas ao longo dos primeiros quatro séculos do fenómeno universitário na Península. Visa igualmente esclarecer o desenvolvimento dos modelos tipológicos da arquitectura universitária ibérica, tanto colégios como edifícios-sede das escolas. Analisa-se o texto de Alfonso X, o Sábio, na segunda das Siete Partidas, dedicado ao estudo geral e à sua situação ideal. Faz-se a cartografia do processo de instalação dos primeiros estudos gerais medievais nas diversas cidades, desde logo em Salamanca. Recolhem-se os primeiros indícios de um urbanismo universitário programado. Estuda-se o processo de conformação espacial das primeiras grandes operações universitárias ex-novo à escala europeia – a construção do bairro universitário de Alcalá de Henares (a partir de 1499) e a abertura da rua da Sofia em Coimbra (nos anos seguintes a 1537). Salientam-se os edifícios universitários marcantes no contexto europeu, na transição da Idade Média para a Idade Moderna. Sistematiza-se a organização funcional e tipológica dos primeiros e mais significativos edifícios universitários ibéricos. Faz-se uma avaliação crítica da genealogia dos modelos vigente e procede-se à sua revisão em face das conclusões dos estudos de caso realizados. Finalmente, e a partir de um tronco comum, procede-se à sistematização dos vários tipos de edifícios universitários, no contexto do surgimento de novas academias (por vezes centradas num único edifício, o “colegio-universidad”) ao longo do século XVI.

The subject of History of Portuguese Architecture (HAP) originated in the School of Fine Arts of Oporto, more than three decades ago, under mastership of the Professor and Architect Alexandre Alves Costa.At the Architecture Course of FCTUC “ Faculty of Sciences andTechnology of the University of Coimbra, HAP has been present from the very beginning. It started in 1992-93, as a subject of the 5th year, under the same Alexandre Alves Costa, then member of the Installing Commission of the course. Other professors who have ensured the subject in the last decade were Walter Rossa and the late Paulo Varela Gomes in addition to Rui Lobo, lecturer for the past five years.History of Portuguese Architecture, which now operates withinthe 4th year of the Architecture Course, has always had an essential practical component. By carrying out practical group work on concrete case studies, students are expected to learn how to investigate, how to search for and collect information and how to distinguish the various "life phases" of architectural objects, from their original structure to what still stands today. It is also intended that students learn to use contemporary means to rehearse and to display the research, lacing hypotheses and illustrating more or less plausible stages of the evolution of the studied objects in time.The themes are chosen by the groups (formed by 4 to 6 students)from an extended list previously proposed by the teachers. The study cases concern mainly Coimbra and Portugal’s central region, for obvious reasons of proximity, although cases are often proposed (and accepted by the students) in other areas of the country.

The recent technique of molecular beam-thermal desorption spectrometry was used here for monitoring hydrogen uptake and release from carbon nanotube networks, after electrochemical hydrogen uptake. This way, an accurate determination of the hydrogen mass absorbed in electrodes made from those assemblies can be achieved by significantly improving the signal-to-noise ratio. The hydrogen desorption mass spectra account for the enhanced surface capability for hydrogen adsorption in the electrodes and enable a comparison with the performance of a palladium electrode in similar conditions. A comparative study involving different carbon nanotube electrodes, in similar hydrogen uptake/desorption conditions, clearly confirmed the expectations about their enhanced hydrogen storage capacity and points to the great potential of carbon nanotube assemblies in replacing the heavier metal alloys as electrocatalysts.

During the Renaissance, the use of coffered arches and vaults was a powerful resource given its suggestive association with Roman art and architecture. In Coimbra, Jehan de Rouen will be a fundamental character in the dissemination of these new formal elements in specific architectural pieces of his production. In his wake, Diogo de Castilho will apply coffered vaults in the churches of the new university colleges (Graça, S. Jero?nimo) stating the city as an important focus of 16th century Portuguese architecture. An important issue would be the definition of a "canonical" formulation for these vaults, which will progress (at the end of the 16th century) towards the circumscription of an odd number of rows, with a central chain of coffers being affirmed “ an evolution that replicated what had happened in other, more "central", European artistic contexts such as Italy itself.

Upon his arrival in Coimbra, in about 1528, Jean de Rouen immediately started working for the Monastery of Santa Cruz, of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. The house was undergoing a spiritual and physical reformation ordered by John III, with the Hieronymite Friar Brás de Braga in charge. Jean de Rouen, sculptor, or "imagineer", was commissioned with some ornamental architectural pieces, such as arches and doorways, where he applied the new language of the Renaissance “ as, for example, the arch of the high choir of the church, framed by a classic composition of pilasters, entablature and a pair of tondi. Simultaneously, he also became responsible for those space-containing architectural structures such as a small chapel amongst the Silence cloister, or the Manga cloister fountain tempietto. In this paper we aim to analyse Jean de Rouen’s work at Santa Cruz, during the first phase of his Portuguese career, and the growing scope of his artistic activity from the scale of sculpture to that of architecture.