Margarida Valla graduated in Architecture, did her master's degree in the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London (1985); her Ph.D. (Art History) at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (2008); she was an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture/ULL (1987-2000); and an Associate Professor - DAU/ULHT (2009-17).

 

She was a member of the 1986 research project on "O Património Arquitectónico Português Fora da Europa" at FAUTL. As a founding member of the Center for Urbanism and Architecture Studies - ISCTE (1999-04), she developed several research projects related to the collection and analysis of ancient cartography in order to identify the morphological characteristics of the Portuguese city in Portugal and Brazil resulting in several publications. She has been publishing several texts under the Ph.D. thesis that analyzes the relationship between urban layout and modern fortifications in Portugal and the role of military engineers in this process. She has been developingg her Post-Doctorate, funded by FCT, on the Fortified cities of Alentejo.