Assistant Professor
School of Architecture, Tianjin University
Email: bebio@tju.edu.cn
Research Theme: Architectural, Urban & Territorial History of Europe and East Asia | Archaeogeography | History of Landscapes and Natural Disasters | Geographical Information Systems (GIS) | Remote Sensing (Satellite & UAV) | History of Port Cities & Concession Territories in East Asia
Bébio Amaro received his Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Tokyo, he specializes in the architectural, urban and territorial history of Japanese port towns during the 16th and 17th centuries. He is a past recipient of the Research Fellowship for Young Scientists attributed by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and his doctoral thesis on the architecture of Jesuit churches in Nagasaki won the Award for Outstanding Research from the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. While pursuing his investigations, in the last decade, Bébio has worked and conducted research in four countries (Portugal, Japan, Netherlands and China).
His current research focus is the application of methodologies from the fields of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Environmental Sciences, Archaeology and Archaeogeography to digitally reconstruct pre-modern landscapes, and analyse the urbanization process of port cities such as Tianjin over lengthy time spans (100-400 years). Furthermore, he is an avid proponent of building bridges between the worlds of Humanities and Natural Sciences: it is impossible to gain a clear understanding of urban development, urban morphology and built heritage without considering the cultural viewpoints of various social groups at different time periods, and therefore he encourages students to consider emotional, ritual/religious, artistic/symbolic and environmental perspectives when studying the urban and non-urban landscape.
His perspectives on building and landscape morphology are informed by the work of theorists such as Bruno Latour, Tim Ingold and Gérard Chouquer, who argue that landscapes are generated by long and complex processes that involve both humans and non-humans (e.g. diseases, animals, natural disasters, geomorphological processes, etc.). It is these complex, self-organized and non-linear processes that over lengthy periods of time gradually give birth to elements of heritage and memory.
