Nuno Brandão Costa (Oporto, 1970) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in 1994, where he finished his PhD in 2013 and has been teaching since 1999. He was assistant to Professor Domingos Tavares and Professor Pedro Ramalho, and is currently co-executive lecturer with professor João Pedro Serôdio of Projecto 4, a curricular unit he has been teaching since 2001. He was coordinator and professor of the Course of Advance Studies in Architectural Design (EAPA 2014/2015) at FAUP, under the conduct of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Jointly with professor José Miguel Rodrigues, he coordinates study option E Project Theory and Practices from FAUP’s PhD programme, chair the respective seminar 2E and is a researcher of CEAU FAUP from the group T2P.

He did a curricular internship with Herzog & de Meuron in Basel, Switzerland, from 1992 to 1993; from 1993 to 1997 he colaborated with José Fernando Gonçalves & Paulo Providência in Oporto and in 1998 he began his own project practice following having won 1st prize at the public competition for the project of the Library of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Nova University of Lisbon.

His work covers a considerable diversity of scales and programmes. The construction of the Campanhã Bus Terminal (TIC) and the rehabilitation and expansion of the São João de Deus social housing neighbourhood, both in Porto, are more recent worth mentioning.

His work was exhibited at the 8th Venice International Architecture Biennale in 2004, at the Architecture Biennale of São Paulo in 2005, Portugal Now at Cornell University, New York in 2007, Tradition is inovation in Tokyo in 2011, at the Milan Architecture Triennale in 2004 and 2014, the 2017 2th Chicago Architecture Biennale and the 17th Venice International Architecture Biennale in 2021.

He authored the exhibition projects for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale in 2007 and 2016. He was nominated for the Mies Van der Rohe Award in 2008 and 2021, for the BSI - Swiss Architectural Award in 2012 and he was a runner up of the FAD Award in 2017.

He won the Revelation and Merit Award from Jornal Expresso / SIC in 2004, the Secil Award in 2008, the Vale da Gândara Award in 2011, Construção Public Building Award in 2022 and the AICA Award in 2022.

Jointly with Sérgio Mah, he was nominated curator of the Official Portuguese Representation at the 16th Venice International Architecture Biennale in 2018.

He was a guest professor at ETSA, University of Navarra, Spain; Estudio Barozzi Universidade de Girona; EHL Campus Lausanne, Porto Academy. He was a guest critic at the School of Architecture, University of Minho (EAUM), at the Department of Architecture, University of Coimbra (DARQ), at the École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (ENAC-EPFL), FAPyD-UNR de Rosário, Università Luav di Venezia (LUAV), Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) Cambridge and ETH GTA Zurich.

He has been a speaker in seminars and at architecture universities in Germany, Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, France, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain and Switzerland.