The José Marques da Silva Architect Foundation (FIMS) was established in 2009 through the transformation of the José Marques da Silva Architect Institute (IMS), founded in 1994, into a private-law foundation created by the University of Porto.
Building on the mission and responsibilities of the former Institute, FIMS fulfils the testamentary wishes of the architect Maria José Marques da Silva. Its purpose is to promote scientific, cultural, educational and artistic activities, namely the classification, preservation, conservation, research, study and dissemination of the artistic and architectural heritage of the architect José Marques da Silva, as well as the literary, artistic, architectural and urban planning collections of the architects Maria José Marques da Silva Martins and David Moreira da Silva. In addition, the Foundation seeks to incorporate other Information Systems of historical, scientific, artistic and documentary significance, with particular emphasis on those relating to the architecture and urban development of Porto and Portugal.
In managing the Information Systems (IS) in its care, FIMS has adopted an innovative and distinctive approach, based on a broad definition of an Information System: the complete body of recorded information, regardless of its medium, created by a wide range of actors and received from multiple sources. This means that books, journals, correspondence, memoirs, reports, architectural projects, construction records, drawings, paintings, sculptures, furniture, plaster casts and many other types of material, although highly diverse in nature, share common characteristics. They were either created by or belonged to specific individuals or architectural practices within a family and were used by them in the various contexts of their personal and professional lives. This documentary diversity, unified by its familial and organisational context and by the activities of its creators, forms part of a coherent systemic whole that provides it with its full meaning.
The application of the systemic model, known as SIAP (Active and Permanent Information System), has important implications for the way information is described. These are worth explaining so that users can make the most of them when carrying out interactive information searches through this website.
The structure of the Information Systems available through the FIMS AtoM platform is organised along two complementary dimensions: personal/family and organisational. Documents and objects created and accumulated either by an individual or by a family spanning several generations can be accessed not only through targeted searches for individual records or objects, but also by navigating the Organisational and Functional Framework (QOF). In the case of a family, this framework is arranged by generation and, within each generation, by the principal couple and the siblings of one of the spouses. Documents and objects are assigned according to their ownership or provenance. For each individual, materials are further organised according to the main stages of life: childhood and adolescence (birth to 16 years); youth (16–23 years); and adulthood (24 years onwards).
Bibliographic, archival and museum information is maintained in dedicated but interconnected databases, allowing integrated searching across the different collections. For example, the Organisational and Functional Framework (QOF) of the Marques da Silva/Moreira da Silva Family is represented in two databases, enabling users to search for publications, archival documents and three-dimensional artefacts associated with the family throughout its history.
The Information Systems and Subsystems currently held by FIMS are listed below.
