The Department of Geosciences at the University of Aveiro is one of the departments of this university located in the University Campus of Santiago in Aveiro.
 The building, designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura, stands out from other campus departments by its differentiated appearance. The appearance of the building
was strongly informed by the environmental planning rules of the campus and some contractual clauses. The brief asked for a total area of 4314 squre meters, with
a maximum percentage of 20% allowed for circulations, while the campus planning rules specified a maximum height of 3 stories, a maximum length of 80 meters
and a width of 20 meters. And, perhaps most imposing: there were allowed only buildings with façades in red brick on the campus of the University of Aveiro.
Eduardo Souto de Moura stubbornly resisted to follow the rules, pointing out that it makes no sense to follow an arbitrary rule, especially since the obligatory
red brick not even has a tradition in the region of Aveiro. Accordingly, the proposed building featured façades of exposed concrete and largely glazed side walls
with brise-soleils. The architect stated, that he was pushed at each meeting to change the constructive system, eventually an adjustment was no longer possible,
since the building was financed with support of the European Union, and so the schedules had to be adhered to. On the interior, the building shows a strikingly simple,
nearly schematic layout. The floor plan reveals the open box, which is centrally cut by a central corridor. On the interior exposed concrete reappears in the ceilings,
while the floors are covered with slate, except the auditorium, which is realized with natural wood. The walls are plastered and the windows are made of aluminium
with natural colour finish for the glazed panels.