FAUP doctoral student is the new curator of the MAC/CCB Architecture Center
MAC/CCB Architecture Center
FAUP doctoral student is the new curator of the MAC/CCB Architecture Center MAC/CCB Architecture Center
November 11, 2025
Filipe Magalhães, architect and doctoral student at FAUP in the E study option, will take over the curatorship of the Architecture Center at MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art at the Belém Cultural Center in Lisbon.
The choice is the result of a public competition launched in June 2025, in which dozens of professionals competed, according to the Belém Cultural Center.
Filipe Magalhães will be joined by a curatorial team composed of Ana Luisa Soares (currently enrolled in the Doctoral Program in Architecture – PDA/FAUP), Ahmed Belkhodja, and Valeriia Samovich (both recently awarded doctorates from FAUP). The term will begin on January 2, 2026, and will last for four years.
The team will be responsible for defining and developing the Architecture Center's programming, reporting directly to the MAC/CCB management and liaising with the other areas of the Belém Cultural Center.
The curatorial proposal reflects the vision and trajectory of the fala studio, demonstrating the relevance of the curatorial project around architecture in the international context and its contribution to bringing the disciplinary debate closer to society.
The curatorial team proposes to “question norms with the public” through “generous but unsettling exhibitions,” affirming that all spaces deserve care and that architecture is, at the same time, an exercise in imagination and empathy.
An architect from FAUP (2011), and about to defend his doctoral thesis, Filipe Magalhães (Porto, 1987) has been part of the fala studio since 2013, which he co-founded and runs with Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, and Lera Samovich. The studio collaborates with leading universities and institutions, such as Centennial Hall in Tokyo, EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, USI Mendrisio, AA, RIBA, and Barbican in London, GSAPP New York, Graham Foundation Chicago, Rice University Houston, and BOZAR Brussels. The studio's work has been exhibited at the Venice and Chicago Biennials, the Serralves Foundation, and the Pavillon de l'Arsenal, and has been widely published, notably in the monographic issues of 2G (#80) and A+U (#637) magazines.
The position of curator of the MAC/CCB Architecture Center was previously held by Mariana Pestana, a former FAUP student.