Paulo Providência was born in Coimbra in 1962. Educated at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, 1989. PhD, University of Coimbra, 2007. Researcher at CES (Centre for Social Studies), University of Coimbra, Portugal. His main professional work as architect is concerned about programmatic responses related to specific contexts: the Laundry of S. Nicolau (Porto 1992), the Renovation of S. Salvador de Figueiredo Church (Braga 1996-98), the Workshops for the Teatro Nacional S. João (Porto 2001-04), or the Medical Healthcare Centre (Vila do Conde 2001-05), are some examples of this aim. The Medical Center of Vila do Conde won the prize ENOR-Portugal 2007. Beyond his activity as architect, he has written mainly about modernity. He’s the author of a study about hospital construction in XIXth century (A Cabana do Higienista, 2000), was co-editor of a guide on modern architecture in Porto (Porto 1901-2001, Guia de Arquitectura Moderna, 2001), as well as editor of a collection of theoretical writings by Georges Teyssot (Georges Teyssot Da teoria de arquitectura: doze ensaios, 2010). Recently he was guest-editor of “Crisscrossing Anthropology and Architecture” (Joelho #2, 2011) and “Teaching through Design” (Joelho #4, 2013). He is Design Studio teacher at the Department of Architecture of the University of Coimbra, Portugal, and has been invited as Guest Critic at UCD (Dublin), SAUL (Limerick) and ETH (Zurich).