to this presentation of a book, which is indeed the procedure book of the last two years ago symposium, the third symposium held here in Porto into 2015.

I had some brief notes about the participants prepared, but I guess it's not useful to read it, because maybe you know the participants here better than me. So I would like to start immediately

with the presentations by the presenter, Professor Vitor Oliveira, and then the three editors of the book, Professor David Viana, Professor Franklin Moraes, and Professor Giorgia Vieira Vaz. I would suggest that, as we are a bit late,

I think in terms of timetable, I'd like to keep as short as possible this presentation. Of course, if you have some questions, they are welcome. But I'd rather suggest that after the presentation of the questions, we will move to the cocktail,

and maybe we will have the opportunity of talking about the book directly with the editors. So just to keep it as short as possible, let me introduce you, presenter, Professor Vitor Oliveira. It's me. That way.

So I don't know if I need this, or I have something. Yes, OK. Because I have something in my pocket, I don't know if it. So good afternoon. I'm going to do a brief presentation on the book. I'll try to keep it in 10 minutes. So first, I would like to congratulate David Viena, George

Vaz, and Franklin Moraes, not only for editing this book, but for keep doing this conference. It's easy to do a conference, to organize a conference. But to keep it year after year with this quality,

it's something very difficult. So I think that should be acknowledged. The book, it has 23 chapters. It is organized in these four parts,

from information gathering and processing, to higher semantic level of theories, to design methods of project production, and to material production. So when you look at this structure, you immediately notice that there is here a line of organization that brings you

from simple data gathering to a more systematic analysis, then to design, and to a fourth part that is devoted to construction, to real construction.

So along this line, the book uses very different methods, as you can see in this slide, from BIM and GIS, to space syntax, to processing, cellular automata, shape grammars, CAD parametric processes, CAM, and CNC.

So there is a lot of methodological experimentation and innovation in this book. I think that one of the most powerful ideas of the book

is that we are always learning. We are always learning from the colleague next to us to a guy in Australia that works with a similar method, as we use, or with informal methods.

Although this conference and this book focuses on formal, Franklin Murais, in the beginning of the book, reminded us that we have to be aware of innovation in both formal and informal methods.

So as you can imagine, the nature of this book makes its reading a very personal experience. What does this mean? It means that the things that were more important to me

when reading the book might not be the same as other reader can experience when he or her be reading this book. So one interesting issue that the book raises is,

and that is why I chose this image from Paul Vieira, is that is it possible to design a particular method for a specific geographical context

and then keep applying it to very different contexts? How much can a method take? How much can it be deformed? And we still say that it is the same method that we have designed one year ago or two years ago

to a very different context. And when we get to chapter four by Paul Vieira, he argues that when he has this particular territory, the Lima River Valley, he tried to look at morphological methods that

were suitable to this territory. And it tells us in chapter four that he could not find it. So he had to produce a new method, a method of his own.

This is a strategy. In chapter five, Jean-Pieter Pasch, which is also here, he selected similar territory nearby, this one, and his option was the opposite.

He looked at the existing morphological methods, and he said, for me, one, it's not enough. So I will try to combine two different things. I will try to combine space syntax with some GIS-based tools. So we have here two different strategies,

and I think it's very important. But more important than that is this reading that you have when you look at these two chapters about this debate between the methods and the territory.

Another important thing for me, and I think that the author of this is around here, is Jean Ventoure. In chapter seven, Jean Ventoure does also something that, for me, was very interesting. This is just an example of a sample of squares

that was studied by Carlos Diaz-Cuello some years ago in Lisbon in using a method that the authors, the editors of the book, would probably call informal. And what Jean Ventoure does is to go back

to these 100 squares around Portugal and applies formal methods. It's not here a direct comparison, but we sense this comparison between what

we can get from informal and what we can get from formal methods. Another topic, it's that of methodological innovation. I'm sure that you all have in mind the criticism that space

syntax has been dealing with, perhaps since the 80s. It immediately comes to my mind a paper by Carlo Ratti in 2004 that is very well-structured in this criticism to space syntax. Then Bill Hillier replied, and then Carlo Ratti

replied again. And two of the things that were in this debate between Ratti and Hillier was the fact that space syntax does not deal, at least in an explicit way,

with topography and with the height of buildings. And this chapter by Franklin Wright, it's very important because it gives us an answer, an explicit answer, of how to deal with these two things that have been part of this debate.

Another topic now with Jose Nunez-Beirão is that of the difference between analysis and design. This is something that the book also addresses.

And I think that the main questions that we have in this book, particularly in the third part of the book, and this chapter is from the third part of the book, is that what do we want to have? Do we want to have an analysis that is scientific

and a design that is creative? Is this possible? Do we want it? Or do we want to build something a little bit different that makes, it doesn't mix, but it's something,

a whole that has analysis and design, and that is the whole is scientific. So the room for creativity is not much. So what do we want? And I think that's the chapter by Jose Nunez-Beirão, and also chapter by Elena Calvo give us

some inputs for this debate that I also think it's very important. As I told you in the beginning, the book goes one step further, and it also deals with effective construction,

not only with our projects, our intentions, but also with the construction in real world. And in chapter 21, the author of this chapter tells us that the architect becomes the organizer of conceptual robotic strategies covering

the areas of design, material, structure, and machine development. So to conclude, I think this is a very important book. It is very well structured, and it's not easy because this is a collection of papers presented

in a conference, but I think that the editors have made really a good job in organizing the book. It's very well balanced. It offers valuable insights and innovative views

on a set of methods for this wide range from data collection to analysis, then to design, and then to effective construction. I believe it somehow remains open. I see it as an open document.

And as I've told you in the beginning, I think one of the main value of the book is that is part of a conference that in its fourth addiction is already a reference, both in national

and in international terms. So I thank you for that. So thank you. Thank you very much, Professor Vito de Veda, for your introduction. Then I will pass the testimony to Professor David Viana,

I think. We go in the same order. Or what do you think? That all is in position, sir. So please, Professor Flynn, Franklin Moraes, it's your turn. I already talked a lot here. My voice is not.

So I'll pass to the next. OK. I can say two things about the book, I suppose. The first thing I think is against all odds. We have already a reader.

Vito, thank you. You are the man. This is fantastic for us and unbelievable, because it's not a book from Paul Quel. It's a very, very deep book in some things. And that's too easy. It will not be a blockbuster, of course. Second thing, what I want to say to the book is the title.

The title can be something like a nice set of tools. And some ideas I'll use that about special analysis, some kind of that. But it's a very long title. It's impossible to put in the cover.

So what we do is a short title that, in general terms, it replicates the name of our symposium. So I think it's just to say that the real aim of this book,

of course, is a group job, a work that is made with a lot of people. But David Biano has a very, very important role in this edition. So about the strategy, and I think

it's very important that we say something about the strategy that we follow to get this. OK? Thank you. Three main ideas. The first thing is that, as Professor Victor Oliver

already told you, you can realize during the book that there are areas within the formal methods that are more developed and others that still need to get more body. For instance, the last chapter about construction is a short one, because I think it's

where the bridge between theory, between conceptualization, between approaches, between methods, and real construction is still a gap. It's still a void there to be filled in. So the book, and as you say, it's very clear, it's not an open, it's not a closed thing, because this final chapter, the bridge to construction,

is something that needs to be improved and needs to be more deepened. So we hope that in the next seminar we have more contributions from people wanting to talk about formal methods and construction.

That is something that we feel that the response that we have is lower in this aspect. Through the book, also, another basic idea is that, as we already told you yesterday,

we try to understand how all of these approaches can be assembled together, where the limitations of each one of them can reach the opportunity to go to another one and to work in a combinatory way with a lot of these formal methods.

So we have this in this symposium also. We have interventions that shows how different approaches can be put together. And that is something that is really also highlighted within the book. And we hope that that kind of basic idea maintained through the symposium

and through future editions, because we don't want this to be a specific methodology forum. We want this to be a merging forum of approaches. And finally, to say that this wouldn't be possible without the contributions of all

the authors. So some of them are here. We really thank you for this, as we already thank you for the contribution from the Fosse symposium for the publications that we are going to have in the future. Because you are doing the work. We are editing.

We are assembling it in a way. But without your contribution, this wouldn't be possible. So thank you. And I hope you enjoy the book. I hope you promote the book. And I hope you use it some way. And we would like it to be an operative and useful book

for everyone. Thank you.