The Building Physics Laboratory (LFC) was created in 1990. It’s a part of the Department of Civil Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, associated with the Building Division.

The central objective of the LFC is the study of the hygrothermal behaviour of construction materials and components, regarding their suitability to various needs, their durability and the improvement of their hygrothermal characteristics. The work developed lies midway between fundamental research, which explains the basic phenomena, and technological research. This allows the LFC to not only support the experimental work of theses that are currently being worked on, but also to answer external requests for material and component characterization.