Since the members of the AAP approved the associative project that led to the creation of the Order of Architects in 1998, with the publication of the Statute (EOA) annexed to Decree-Law 176/98 of 3 July, the OA has gained its current composition, representing all architects and regulating their professional practice, a new associative role that has come to reflect both the growing affirmation and implantation of architects in Portuguese society and a new Portuguese reality resulting from European integration in 1986. It was created in 1998 by Decree-Law no. 176/98 of 3 July and is the faithful custodian of a long history of associations whose formal origins date back to 1863.