The University of São Paulo School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAUUSP) was founded in 1948 with the creation of the bachelor degree in Architecture and Urbanism. The formation of architects and urbanists (both qualifications are combined in Brazil) has a broad perspective including disciplines on visual communication, industrial design and landscape. FAUUSP also offers the bachelor degree in Design since 2006. The postgraduate program in Architecture and Urbanism exists since 1972 and in Design since 2017. The school community is formed in the present by around 1.300 graduate students, 900 hundred postgraduate students, 92 professors and 135 administrative and technical staff. FAU is one of USP schools with highest mobility numbers with an average of 60 students sent abroad and 100 foreign students received each year.
The school figures as a prestigious institution in international and national rankings, being constantly indicated as the best architecture school in Brazil. FAUUSP has been listed by the QS University Ranking among the 50 best institutions in the architecture field during several years, occupying the first position in Latin America in 2018.
Vila Penteado building was FAU’s first location and is an art nouveau style villa built in the beginning of the XXth century as the residence of an industrial family that was donated to the university; it houses today the school’s postgraduate courses. The school transfered to Vilanova Artigas building in 1969, which was specifically designed to be the expression of the school pedagogical program by the brazilian architects João Batista Vilanova Artigas and Carlos Cascaldi, following the principles of brazilian modernism and is one of the most important representations of the movement so called Paulista School. Both buildings are recognized as cultural and architectural heritage of São Paulo city and state. Besides these two buildings, the school facilities also include an experimental construction site, an annex for models, printing, photography and video workshops and a sculpture atelier.
The internationally renowned architect and Pritzker Prize winner, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, is a former FAUUSP professor. Besides him, other brazilian personalities are part of the institution’s history as the singer and composer Chico Buarque and the famous film-maker and Oscar nominee Fernando Meirelles.
To know more about the school and also about it’s building we suggest you check on these links:
International Office – FAUUSP | Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da USP
FAU-USP by João Batista Vilanova Artigas (307AR) — Atlas of Places