
João Bento
since 2023
João is an architect and urbanist graduated by the School of Architecture of Lisbon, Universidade de Lisboa (2006). He was awarded a PhD in urbanism by the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London (2017), where he developed a thesis focused on the role and effectiveness of national architectural policies in the European Union.
Currently, João is a Research Fellow at the Lisbon School of Architecture, funded by a grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) developing the research project: "Soft-power in the governance of urban design: the role and impact of informal tools for improving spatial quality in cities across Europe".
João started his research career at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Portugal, where he participated in several research activities. In 2012, João conducted a Survey on architectural policies in Europe, in partnership with European Forum for Architectural Policies, published with the financial support of the Swedish Museum of Architecture.
From 2019-2021, João participated as a Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Planning - UCL on the international research project URBAN MAESTRO, coordinated by UN-HABITAT together with the Bouwmeester Maitre Architecte (BMA) of Brussels, resulting in the recent publication “Urban Design Governance”, by UCL Press (2023).
João recently organized with ESPON a workshop on architectural policies (Zagreb, 2023). He has been a guest speaker in several conferences, the most recent in the European Conference of Architectural Policies (Prague, 2022), European Meeting of Directors of Architecture (Paris, 2022), Conference on Architectural Policies (Vilnius, 2021), EU OMC Experts Group on ‘High-Quality Architecture and the Built Environment’ (Brussels, 2020).
João collaborates regularly with the Architects' Council of Europe and the Portuguese Order of Architects, being part of its Technical Board for Sustainability (Comissão Técnica de Sustentabilidade). He is also a board member of AD URBEM - Association for the Development of Urban and Construction Law, Portugal.