Standing between two departments whose buildings already existed, the building of the Civil Engineering Department follows – as the others did – the dimensional directives of the plan for the southeast side of the great porticoed walk or “cloistral system”, the most emblematic of the exterior space of the Campus. Thus, perpendicularly to the portico or gallery, the building develops in a prolonged parallelepiped involved by visible brick-layered patches and the entrances are situated on the smaller sides which are the ones that have the best access from the outside. In the interior there are three levels with very different characteristics and destinies but the most impressive is the intermediate one because it is smaller and it is suspended from the level above, in a demonstration of calculus capacity applied to a general system of pillars and metal beams separated from the façades, to which the suspension of the intermediate level is an exception with its pre-strung cables. This project solution is due to the will of turning the building into a practical demonstration of civil engineering knowledge which is extended to the use of pre-fabricated slates for the pavements or metal plates for the roofing. The result of these options can be observed in the architectural atmosphere of the rooms with a double ceiling height which is provoked by indentation of the intermediate level.

Text removed from “Universidade de Aveiro - Trinta Anos de Arquitetura” (Jorge Arroteia, Nuno Portas e Michel Toussant)