Diogo Faria is an architectural designer and PhD candidate in Urban Studies at the University of Basel, supervised by Prof. Dr. Kenny Cupers. Faria’s research examines how built environments and social life mutually shape one another, focusing on the casinha de prazeres, garden pavilions constructed in the Madeira Islands from the eighteenth century onward. Bringing together archival research, architectural survey and mapping, oral history, and comparative analysis, this work investigates how spaces and social relations co-produce authority, desire, and belonging.

Drawing on gender, queer, and postcolonial spatial theories, the research approaches the built environment as a cultural and affective practice, one shaped by, and shaping human, environmental, and material interactions. By exploring how spaces invite, constrain, or transform relations between human and more-than-human actors, Faria highlights the reciprocal processes through which social, political, and ecological life are continually produced. 

Faria holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Architecture and Urban Studies from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), with additional training in Landscape Architecture, and studied at the University of the Republic in Montevideo through the Santander Ibero-American Scholarship. Professional experience spans Portugal, Switzerland, and France, integrating independent design practice with transnational artistic and curatorial projects that bridge research, design, and cultural engagement.

• Madeira Islands