Mozambique: France awards Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters to Moreira Chonguiça
Photo by Moira Forjaz / Wikimedia Commons/
José Forjaz, one of the most renowned architects in Mozambique, died at dawn on Tuesday (25-06) in a hospital in Lisbon, Portugal.
According to Canalmoz, citing a family source, Forjaz was already weakened by a cancer he had been fighting for some time, which led him to take up permanent residence in Portugal for treatment.
Forjaz is linked to works such as the National Heroes Square, the Administrative Court, the Assembly of the Republic, the Fisheries Museum and the national headquarters of BCI, among others.
José Forjaz was born in Coimbra in 1936 and left for Mozambique in 1952, where he finished secondary school. He began working in the mid-1950s as a draftsman for the Provincial Public Works Services under the architect Pancho Guedes.
He then went to Portugal to study architecture at the Porto School of Fine Arts. He carried out his first work in Portugal, in the early 1960s, moving on to pursue a master’s degree at Columbia University in New York in 1966, after serving four years’ mandatory military service in Portugal and Mozambique.
Between 1961 and 1963, Forjaz had joined the Portuguese Federation of Pension Funds, and three years later collaborated in the atelier of architects Francisco Conceição Silva and Maurício de Vasconcellos.
Forjaz opened an architectural office in Swaziland (currently Eswatini) in 1968, where he worked until 1975, when he returned to Mozambique and joined the transitional government and then the government of the independent country.
From 1975-1977, Jose Forjaz was the senior adviser for the Mozambican Minister for Public Works and Housing, dealing with housing policy, human settlements, planning, training and institution building. From 1977-1983, he was National Director of Housing, responsible for regional and urban planning, housing and social equipment. He was also in charge of training programmes for basic and medium level rural and urban planning technicians. The National Directorate of Housing covered the entire country through a network of ten provincial offices.
Between 1983 and 1986, he was the Secretary of State for Physical Planning in charge of the National Institute for Physical Planning, responsible also for directing the National Directorate for Geography and Cadastral Registration. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1977-1986.
He headed the Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning at Eduardo Mondlane University from 1990 until 2008. He retired from university teaching in 2009 and was a visiting professor at several foreign universities.
The Mbuzini monument (1998-99) is one of his most emblematic projects. He has a large portfolio of work in Mozambique, including, in Maputo, the Consolata Missionary Institute (1992-2000); the Auditorium and Chapel for the CIRM Conferemo – Instituto Superior Maria Mãe de África (2000-03), the Casas Torcato (1999-2003) and Paulino (2003), and the Caracol Condominium (2004). The Monument to Mozambican Women,, the Kwaluseni campus of the University of Eswatini (then the University of Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland), , the Pan-African Parliament, in South Africa, the Matola Seminary church and the Roxo Leão ‘father and son’ houses are among his vast work.
Throughout his career, he was awarded multiple distinctions, including The Ralph Erskine Award (Stockholm 1989); Professor Emeritus at Eduardo Mondlane University; Member of the Policy Advisory Board of the Cities Alliance (2006-9); Honorary Member of Portugal’s Order of Architects (2006); Extraordinary Honorary Member of the International Council of Portuguese Language Architects-CIALP (2018); and he received Mozambique’s National Liberation Struggle Veteran Medal , Commander of the Order of Italian Liberty and the Medal of Cultural Merit of Mozambique.
José Forjaz leaves us at the age of 88, but his influence and contribution to architecture will be remembered and celebrated by generations to come.
** José Forjaz – architecture **
The #architect Forjaz passed away. His style was unique and resolutely #Mozambican. He contributed several religious buildings – Chamaculo, Capela Mãe Africa & Pemba (plan). R.I.P.
More here: https://t.co/my4irZOrYs pic.twitter.com/pGIPjMYdlt— Eric Morier-Genoud (@emorier) June 27, 2024
Mensagem de Condolências pela morte do Arquitecto e Professor Emérito José Forjaz pic.twitter.com/zAVfplkbpb
— UEM – Moçambique (@uemmoz) June 26, 2024
Polana Secondary School, Maputo, by João José Tinoco & José Forjaz, 1970. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/SMHHOXiWgm
— David Knight (@knight_david) January 1, 2016
#RDC #JoseForjaz RIP architecte a conçu monument commémoratif du crash de l’avion du Président #SamoraMachel #Mozambique.Il comprend 35tubes d’acier pour chaque victime
Ces tubes semblent émettre un cri sous le vent.C’est aussi la voix de mon père l’Ambassadeur #Tokwaulu
Merci🌹 pic.twitter.com/nUJP3kixtf— Bernadette Tokwaulu (@tokwauluaena2) June 25, 2024
Mozambique’s Museum of Fisheries looks inward
Writer: Mercedes Sayagues
Images: Mercedes Sayagues, José Forjaz https://t.co/LJpDspJQ5Z pic.twitter.com/FOFkG67I2u— Ogojiii (@OGOJIII) September 11, 2017
Em pleno “25 de Junho”, data especial em Moçambique, perdemos o #arquitecto, amigo e mentor, #JoséForjaz. Mestre, descansa em paz, Zé! pic.twitter.com/htdS7orRtW
— Jaime Henrique (@JaiHenriq) June 25, 2024
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