The Most Reverend D. Antonio dos Santos Marto, Bishop of Viseu
Fax 00 351 232 428 518

Delft, 17 September 2004



Your Excellency,

Three years ago the New School of Architecture came into being at Viseu. No one coerced the faculty and students of an existing school. No one worked behind the scenes to destroy or to change an acclaimed curriculum. The New School put Portugal on the map of world architecture by dedicating itself to the craft of making buildings and towns which, as they have done for thousands of years, appeal enduringly to the human soul.

In May 2004 the New School hosted architects and professors from around the world who had come to the conference called ‘The Teaching of Architecture and Urbanism in the Age of Globalization’. Encouraged by the students and faculty of the New School, as well as by the drawings and models which the students had made, the participants drafted the Viseu Declaration on Architectural Education. Both the Declaration itself and the quality and content of the New School have been spread to virtually all corners of the world via the Internet.

I was one of the conference participants. In more than 20 years of teaching architecture, and with a knowledge of various institutes which train architects, I have never encountered so much joy, so much pride, and so much living knowledge as I did among the students and their teachers in Viseu. Here, decidedly, was life in abundance.

Two weeks ago the students and faculty returned to Viseu for the start of the new academic year. They were met by a new group of teachers and a new director, pledged to destroy the school and the culture which the students and their teachers had built in the preceding three years. The students had not called for a radical change in their curriculum; neither had their professors. Without a doubt they found themselves face to face with the principalities and powers.

Who gave them leave to take possession of the New School? What, in the experience and witness of the Church, could legitimate the current attempt to change policy and polity in Viseu? I cannot believe that the people who are ultimately responsible for the life and content of the Universidade Catolica Portuguesa could condone a change which has all the trappings of an ordinary coup d’etat.

If there are ideological differences about the content of architecture which should be taught, why not discuss them democratically? Why not let a school of proven quality exist side by side with more ordinary schools?

And where, I keep wondering, is the living God in this current drama? Suffering as usual, I conclude. But it is not too late to rectify the recent violence.

Yours sincerely,


Dr. Ir. Jaap Dawson
Faculty of Architecture
Technische Universiteit Delft
Delft, Holland