Maria Natália Pereira Gomes

BIOGRAPHY

Natália Gomes, known as Natacha amongst her friends and family, and also in the professional sphere, is an architect who worked in former Portuguese territories in Africa and Asia, namely Mozambique, Goa and Macao, between 1961 and 1973. Born on 30 March 1937 in Lisbon, she completed her architecture degree at the Lisbon Superior School of Fine Arts (ESBAL) in 1961. That same, year she married architect Manuel Vicente, who had been her colleague at ESBAL and with whom she would collaborate for much of her professional life. Shortly afterwards, they both went to Goa and Natacha, among other women, returned to Lisbon on the governor's instructions following the invasion of Portuguese territory by India. In 1962, the couple went to Macao to work and stayed there for four years. Back in Lisbon, Natacha worked with the architect Chorão Ramalho. In 1968, Manuel Vicente travelled to Pittsburgh for postgraduate studies, and Natacha accompanied him, working as an architect there for part of the time. In 1971, already separated from her husband, she finally emigrated to Mozambique at the invitation of the architect José Bruschy, who at the time was in charge of the Urban Planning Department of the Lourenço Marques City Council. In order to be able to officially practise her profession, Natacha had to do her final thesis in which she applied the practical knowledge she had acquired in Macao. As the only woman in the department, Natacha developed architectural and urban planning projects for the consolidated city as part of a team. She returned to Lisbon in 1973 and currently lives in Macao.

 

(Leonor Matos Silva, 2023)