About us

The Portuguese Society of Urban Planners (SPU) was founded on 31 January 1983 and in 1996 changed its name to the Association of Portuguese Urban Planners (AUP). It brought together the Portuguese professionals who already belonged to the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), founded in Amsterdam in 1965. From the outset, SPU/AUP was the professional association of urban planners in Portugal. It kept permanent contacts and collaborations with several foreign institutions linked to urban planning, was a member of the European Council of Spatial Planners (ECTP-CEU) from its creation and held its presidency on two occasions. It was also a founding member of the Ibero-American Federation of Urban Planners (FIU).

APPLA, founded in April 1993, emerged as the first degree in urban and regional planning in Portugal matured (Degree in Regional and Urban Planning, University of Aveiro, 1983). The entry of new graduates into the labour market and the push for legal recognition of their professional skills shaped APPLA’s early direction, later centred on knowledge through annual meetings, continuing training, the education of young people, and the defence of professional qualification and accreditation of urban planning practice in Portugal.

APROURB was founded in April 2002, in Lisbon, growing out of the Group of Students and Young Urban Planning Professionals (founded in 1994 at Universidade Lusófona). Its work focused on dignifying the profession and on professional responsibility, on the basis that training is one way to improve the quality of urban planning. In 2005 it presented a petition to the Assembly of the Republic for recognition of professionals trained in urban planning. The petition was approved unanimously, with a recommendation to the Government on responsibility in urban and spatial planning. It was an active voice in public debate, working with the Assembly of the Republic and successive governments on urban planning legislation.

The Portuguese Association of Urban Planners (APU), established on 18 December 2017, results from the merger of three associations — the Portuguese Association of Spatial Planners (APPLA), the Professional Association of Portuguese Urban Planners (APROURB) and the Association of Portuguese Urban Planners (AUP) — based on a shared will to defend professional qualification and the practice of urban planning in Portugal, developing the document “MERGER OF AUP, APROURB AND APPLA – PROPOSAL” of December 2014.