UC Women in Science: Carolina Coelho
Carolina Coelho, researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Coimbra and professor at the Department of Architecture, is the August guest of ‘UC Women in Science’.
Ever since she was a child, Carolina Coelho has felt the urge to do something new. "Living with art is fundamental," she says. "It nourishes my soul, and I wanted to be part of that world."
Therefore, studying architecture at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra was an easy choice for Carolina. She soon realised that she wanted to study the relationship between architecture and society — in other words, "to think about spaces that will have life, spaces that people will experience."
Today, Carolina Coelho is a professor at the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra (UC) and a researcher at the UC Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies (CEIS20).
She won the international award “The Glen Earthman Outstanding Dissertation Award” with her doctoral thesis, “Life within architecture from design process to space use. Adaptability in school buildings today – A methodological approach.”
The adaptability of spaces was one of the solutions proposed by Carolina Coelho to make schools compatible with "more people, more teaching activities and for more hours", as teaching is constantly evolving. The thesis is available in the open repository of the University of Coimbra, aligning with Carolina Coelho's goal: "to share my knowledge with everyone and possibly provide a basis for future developments in my work or that of others in the field of architecture."
English subtitles available.
Carolina Coelho is an architect who graduated from the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra (DARQ-UC). She completed her doctoral thesis, 'Life within architecture: From design process to space use. Adaptability in school buildings today – A methodological approach', at the Centre for Social Studies and DARQ-UC, where she explored spatial adaptability in contemporary active educational environments. Her thesis was awarded the Glen Earthman Outstanding Dissertation Award by the International Society for Educational Planning.
She is a Visiting Assistant Lecturer at DARQ-UC, where she teaches Theory and History of Architecture, as well as courses on architectural research, such as Research Seminar and Theory Laboratory for the Integrated Master’s in Architecture, and Research Methodologies for the Doctoral Programme in Architecture. As a lecturer, she has received two Honourable Mentions from the UC Faculty of Sciences and Technology for her teaching performance
She is an Integrated Researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Coimbra (CEIS20), conducting research within the Educational Policies and Organisations and Educational Dynamics group, and is a current member of the CEIS20 Scientific Coordination team.
Her research interests include problematising the experience of space and developing inclusive and participatory co-creation processes in teaching and learning environments.
She is part of the research project '(EU)ROPA. Rise of Portuguese Architecture, funded by FCT, in which she coordinates the 'What Research' line, focused on research experiences in architecture in Portugal since the 1960s. She is also the lead researcher for the Portuguese interdisciplinary team in the project 'CoReD. Collaborative Re-design with Schools', an Erasmus+ project funded by the European Union. This project focuses on the development of activities and tools that contribute to a better understanding of educational spaces and practices, with six partners: the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom), Libera Università di Bolzano (Italy), Háskóli Íslands (Iceland), Högskolan i Gävle (Sweden), Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), and the University of Coimbra (Portugal).