Architects Cristina Guedes and Francisco Vieira de Campos - Menos é Mais -, guest lecturers at FAUP, won the AICA/MC/Millennium bcp 2023 Architecture Prize for their work on the refurbishment of the 'A Nacional' Insurance Company building, which is part of a landmark project in Portuguese architectural culture.

The jury, made up of Ana Tostões, who presided, Ana Anacleto, João Belo Rodeia, Lígia Afonso and Susana Ventura, justified the award of the Prize "based on the rehabilitation of the 'A Nacional' Insurance Company building - originally designed by the Porto architect José Marques da Silva - due to the subtlety of the interventions in the original building, which could be called 'surgical', enabling a delicate adaptation of use without creating dissonance, with special attention to the invisibility of the infrastructures".

For the jury, "it thus constitutes an exemplary contribution to the current debates surrounding the rehabilitation and reuse of architectural heritage and its integration into the city."

In addition to the uniqueness of this work, the award also seeks to "highlight the consistent disciplinary path of great rigor of the authors, inseparable from a thorough knowledge of the art of construction".

The AICA/MC/Millennium bcp 2023 Visual Arts Prize was awarded to Carlos Bunga for the importance of the exhibitions held in 2023 at the Bombas Gens Centre d'Art in Valencia, the Sarasota Art Museum in Florida and his participation in the 35th São Paulo Biennial. The artist Carlos Bunga was one of the guests at Seminar #2 More than Houses, promoted by FAUP and curated by Teresa Novais and Luís Tavares Pereira.

Cristina Guedes (Macau) and Francisco Vieira de Campos (Porto) founded Menos é Mais Arquitectos in 1994.

The ability to do more and better with less is their motto, seeking to balance the "economy" of means with the "richness" of materiality and the emotional involvement of users. His works are a pragmatic response to specific contexts. These principles are visible in the Gravitational Winery at Quinta do Vallado, in the Douro; the Gaia Cable Car stations and the Arquipélago Contemporary Arts Center (with JMR), on the island of S. Miguel, in the Azores (the latter exhibited at the 2016 Venice Biennale "Reporting from the front" and 2018 "Public Without Rhetoric"). Both architects combine practice with teaching.

Cristina Guedes is a Visiting Professor at several national and international universities, including USI-University of Italian Switzerland - Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio (2018-2022), UAL, FAULP and FAUP - Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto.

FVC is a Visiting Professor at FAUP - Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto and at the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra in Pamplona (2019).

They have been invited to workshops, conferences, juries, national and international exhibitions and critiques at various faculties such as ETH Zurich, TU Wien, Lausanne Polytechnic, Mackintosh School of Architecture and Trinity College Dublin.

More recently, they won the Secil Architecture Prize in 2020 (Lisbon), the AIT Prize in 2020 (Frankfurt), the National Wood Architecture Prize in 2020 (Alcobaça), the BIGMAT'17 International Architecture Restoration Prize (Luxembourg), the FAD Prize in 2016 (Barcelona) and the BIAU Architecture Prize in 2016 (São Paulo), 2012 (Cádiz) and 2006 (Montevideo). Menos é Mais was also nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Prize in 2019, 2015, 2013 and 2009 (Barcelona).

CG and FVC were awarded the title of International RIBA Fellows by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Since 1981, the AICA Awards have recognized Portuguese artists and architects who, through their work and personal career, have made an outstanding contribution to culture and art (see attached list of award winners), and which from the outset have enjoyed the support of the government's Culture department.

The AICA/MC/Millennium bcp 2023 Awards mark the continuation of the partnership with the Ministry of Culture, through the Directorate-General for the Arts, and the Millennium bcp Foundation.

In previous editions, several FAUP professors and former students have been honored. The full list can be consulted on the AICA website.