This monograph is a comprehensive study of Siza’s work, from his early built work – the Boa Nova Tea House, Portugal (1958-63) – to his latest projects. Siza has received critical acclaim for works in Germany (Schlesisches Tor, Berlin), Spain (Galician Centre for Contemporary Art, Santiago de Compostela), Italy (restoration of the Campo di Marte, Venice) and Portugal (Portugese Pavilion at Expo ’98, Lisbon). His projects have been exhibited widely.

Siza’s architecture is vigorous and coherent and distinctively apt to respond to the environment without detracting from its functional and stylistic identity. This book charts over 40 years of work to cover built works, projects, writings, photographs, drawings and many of Siza’s sketches. An extensive introduction by Kenneth Frampton describes the works’ evolution, while writings by Siza himself are interspersed throughout the volume, offering a unique personal perspective to his work and to twentieth-century architecture as a whole.

• Paperback: 620 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.8 x 1.9 inches

Monograph which deals with all aspects of the master’s personality: works, constructed or otherwise, primary written sources, critiques and photographic interpretations.

Monography Collection:

The aim of the collection is to offer a series of short monographs which, though brief, nevertheless deal with all aspects of the master’s personality: works, constructed or otherwise, primary written sources, critiques and photographic interpretations. The underlying aim is to offer an in-depth, comprehensive overview targeted at anyone interested in learning about architecture including students, professionals or simply those who are interested in the subject, by providing not only basic information but also guidance in terms of gaining more insight into the subject. The volumes are dedicated to some of the best known modern and contemporary architects

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Álvaro Siza (b.1933) is considered Portugal’s greatest living architect. His buildings are known for their austere beauty and their imaginative relationship to their surroundings. Relatively unknown outside his native Portugal when he won the 1992 Pritzker Prize, he has since built a number of masterful buildings around the world while retaining strong ties to his country. This volume highlights over twenty of these projects, approximately half of which are in Portugal. Each is explained in depth by author Carlos Castanheira as well as Siza himself, and illustrated with photographs, complete sets of drawings, and a wealth of Siza’s sketches.

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Constructed in the sixties and with an expansive view of the Atlantic Ocean, this project is considered one of the most interesting early works of the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza. This publication “rediscovers” his project with the help of recently made available drawings, project descriptions, sketches and photographs.

Paperback: 96 pages
Publisher: Blau (2005)
Language: English, Portuguese, German
Dimensions: 17 x 24 cm

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Alvaro Siza Vieira,  was awarded on Wednesday morning at the Museum Soares dos Reis, in Porto with the Luso-Spanish Prize for Art and Culture, delivered by Secretary of State for CultureFrancisco José Viegas and the Minister of Culture of Spain, Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde.

Siza Vieira succeeds Joseph Benedict and Perfeito Quadrado, previous winners of this award, highly prestigious and representing the binding of the artistic dialogue between the countries that make up the Iberian Peninsula.

The Portuguese architect was presented with a piece written by Fernanda Fragateiro and did not hide the “great emotion” by the honor bestowed with such distinction.

His artistic journey that has so often contemplated Spain,  through the poetry in the design of the Galician Centre of Contemporary Art and the School of Journalism, two examples of his work in Santiago de Compostela, was bestowed with compliments from the Spanish Government by the words of Angeles González, praising ”the universal work of someone who built places for men and women around the world with a desire to better accommodate the society.”

Francisco José Viegas did not miss out on the tribute to Siza Vieira, loaded with symbolism because it coincides with the birthday of Jose Saramago. The Portuguese Secretary of State praised the role of the architect from Matosinhos “internationalization of culture thanks to a strong and active presence.”

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More info at: http://trienaldelisboa.com

LET’S TALK ABOUT HOUSES: Between  North and  South

CURATORS

Ana Vaz Milheiro, Diogo Seixas Lopes, Luís Santiago Baptista, James Peto, Manuel Graça Dias, Max Risselada, Pedro Pacheco and Peter Cook

DATE

14.10.2010 – 16.01.2011

CO-PRODUCTION: LISBON ARCHITECTURE TRIENNALE | MUSEU COLECÇÃO BERARDO

The exhibition Let’s talk about houses: Between North and  South its shown at the Museu Colecção Berardo. Occupying the entire floor of the Grand Hall (3000 m2), it examines dwelling conditions and the new solutions found in the specific contexts of various regions around the world. With a broad span of commissioners, the exhibition is based around two emblematic experiments (the SAAL project and Alison and Peter Smithson’s House of the Future) in order to examine the meaning of the specificity of place, the modernist legacy, and new solutions to the question of dwelling.

Between the utopian dimension of the legacies of 1956 (Smithson´s) and 1976 (SAAL) and the contemporary period, diverse architectural practices intersect, complexify, and are constructed and defined. In the different areas of this exhibition, the specific nature of the local problems and solutions that architecture is defining, will be detailed through the presentation of projects and the use of documental images and interviews with architects, theoreticians and residents.

Let´s talk about houses…in Portugal

The pathway that structures the exhibition – that which shapes its topological centre – is devoted to Portugal, in the vision conceived by Pedro Pacheco and Luís Santiago Baptista, who found their provisional map in the presentation of nine projects by the same number of architects. In symbolic terms, we could say that the structuring of the pathway that they are proposing is based on an “ethics of reception” of architecture, permanently confronting the point of view of the architect with the way that his work is received by those who inhabit the space.

Featured architects: a.s*; Aires Mateus; Álvaro Siza Vieira; Atelier Central; Eduardo Souto de Moura; João Mendes Ribeiro; Menos é Mais; Pedro Reis; Rui Mendes.

The Nordic Connection

The mapping of the scenarios found in northern Europe, with which Portugal maintains a twofold relationship – simultaneously distant, but with a maritime link – was conceived by Peter Cook, who undertook a tour around Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland to find, in the Nordic tradition of wood, lightness, turf, and sea, a path of connections that led him to select eight studios. On this basis, he has created a provisional outline of a map of the pathways of northern dwelling. The essay that he has contributed to the catalogue is a long text that frames the specificities of northern European architecture and design. Among the forests and the ships, the mimetic and the different, he finds the traces, which he sought on his journey.

Featured architects: ALA Architects; Anttinen Oiva Architects; Dorte Mandrup; Helen & Hard; Jensen & Skodvin Architects, Mette Ramsgard Thomsen & Karin Bech (CITA), Snohetta AS, Tham & Videgård Architects.

Borderlines: the Novartis case

Diogo Seixas Lopes was entrusted with the curatorship of the section that establishes the relationship between Switzerland and Portugal. His focus represents almost the inverse of the proposal put forward by the exhibition as it is centered on three projects related to the enormous architectural park that is Novartis in Basel. The buildings chosen (by Siza Vieira, Souto de Moura and Peter Märkli) are, respectively, laboratories and the centre where guests are welcomed to the Swiss pharmaceutical company, modules in the network, which constitutes the city within a city (almost the state within a state), which is the extraordinary architectural campus of Novartis. It is this condition of the city without inhabitants (but with workers, like a gigantic beehive) that Diogo Seixas Lopes is proposing, and which finds a peculiar expression in the (economic and technical) conditions that architects find here.

Featured architects: Álvaro Siza Vieira; Eduardo Souto de Moura; Peter Märkli.

Africa/Brazil: The Popular City

The exhibition ends with a tour around Africa and brazil, guided by Ana Vaz Milheiro and Manuel Graça Dias, which focuses on three cities: Luanda, Recife and Maputo. The curators’ project was to discuss dwelling in these cities on three levels: the real, informal and organic city of the musseques, caniços and favelas; the formal, besieged city of the secure and asocial condominiums; and the threatened city, made up of the fragile legacy of the modernism that, in the tropical poetics that developed, found a freedom and a heterodoxy that should be recovered and re-examined. The strategy of presenting places and their protagonists, and the invitation to authors to write short accounts of their cities, maps out a pathway that, as organically as a city, tempts us to think about dwelling much more than would the fetish of the architectural object.

Featured architects: Delfim Amorim; Fernão Simões de Carvalho; Maria João Teles Grilo; José Forjaz; Pancho Guedes; Una Arquitectos.

EXHIBITION DESIGN TEAM

Architecture: Sofia Saraiva, Ana Miguel e Pedro Rogado

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19 October 2011

“The Relationship between Arts” was the title of the lecture by Álvaro Siza Vieira at the opening class of the Faculty of Arts of the university of Porto. (Translation soon)

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Simplicity is a virtue difficult to achieve – Siza Vieira

The architect Alvaro Siza Vieira, 1992 Pritzker Prize, which was on Monday 24/10/2011 honorary doctorate from the University of Seville, argued that simplicity is a virtue difficult to achieve and should not be confused with simplification.

“Simplicity is a difficult thing to achieve … it is often interpreted as a simplification, but that’s another thing. Doing a job that is based on removing what is not needed in the architectural expression is a difficult path, both in terms working as attention, “said Siza, as quoted by the Efe agency, in a meeting with the press.

“Not all the architecture must have a simple intention, because there is a difference in cities, between buildings: a public building in the interest of all citizens for their activity, and has by nature a strong expression, but another part of the fabric that makes the city does not have to be worked as a monument, “he claimed.

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Marco de Canaveses Portugal

The Church for Marco of Canaveses, is only a part of a religious complex that foresees an auditorium, the catechesis school and the house for the parish priest. The Santa Maria Church in Marco de Canavezes is part of an overall complex that, together with a planned Parish Center, will form a small urban square.It was the parish priest Father Nuno Higino’s personal decision to call on Siza, and to invest himself fully in this very ambitious project.
The proposed plan by Alvaro Siza, with the church playing a central role, will ensure that the other buildings will be in concordance with the pre-existing scale of the neighbourhood. The façade (17.5 x 17.5 square meter ) is in three sections with two projecting towers. The 10 meter high temporary grey steel doors will eventually be replaced by bronze doors. “The visit to the place already chosen had disturbed myself deeply: it was a very difficult place, with great quota differences, lofty to a highway with a lot of traffic. As if it was not enough, that area was marked by buildings of terrible quality.

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The construction of this parochial center is also the construction of a place, in substitution of a scarp very accentuated. The church pronounces in two levels: a superior, of the assembly, and an inferior, of the mortuary chapel. As they show the access courses to the two quotas, they are decisively two spaces with different characteristics. The mortuary chapel is almost the foundation of the own church: it creates a stable quota, it fastens, so that the church can lean on. Besides, with their granite walls and the monastery, it establishes the distance in relation to the highway. This inhabited platform owed therefore to appear as “built nature.” But it is also very important the placement, in face of the main access, of the parochial center and of the parish priest’s residence. These volumes define a great “U” that opposes to a small “u” formed by the two towers, the one of the steeple and the one of the baptistery. It appears, like this, the necessary space for the great vertical volume of the facade. At the same time, it becomes possible a relationship with the constructions of small climbs that surround this acropolis. Like this, the churchyard is demarcated.

The initial reference was a construction that already existed, a residence for the third age, of a correct and ordinated architecture , located in the superior quota of the scarp and with a very significant extension in relation to the highway. Starting from this new level, everything else went pronouncing, resisting the complexity of the existent constructions and allowing the creation of a churchyard finally, open on the beautiful worth of Marco de Canaveses. Let us hope that new constructions don’t come her to lean on the terrible ones that already exist and stay opened, that is essential.

The great door of the church, with its ten meters of height, should exist in relation to this vast view. The entrance is made, usually, through a glass door, under the right tower, while the big door is only open in special circumstances. After the lateral movement of entrance, the perception of a low and long window, on the right side, that allows the view to the exterior. In that instant, if it doesn’t seat the diffuse light that arrives of the high openings in the wall curves and sloping to the, left: They see each other, still and immediately, it is worth it and the constructions in front. The window contradicts the withdrawal atmosphere that are habituated at a church and for this reason it generated controversy. The same with the placement of the statue of the Virgin, that is almost as high as the followers and is not agrees in pedestal. Though surprisingly, a theologian, very dear in Porto eulogized the respect for the actuais beginnings of the liturgy, that accentuate the function of mediation of the Virgin between God and the men and by consequence among men. Is facto the statue of Our Lady has an intermediate position: put in the extremity of the window and submited to a very intense light, it introduces the space of the altar, that who enters doesn’t notice immediately. Three steps elevate the plan of the celebration, that ended with two doors, for which enters clear light, filtered by a high chimney. This disposition dialogues with the light bath on the curve forms of the lateral limits of the apse and on the space of the church in general.

The natural illumination varies with the time, depending on the position of the sun, and it is going from the projection of the drawing of the ray of light to the silence of the aspersion: a great interval, rigorous and tangible. The assembly of all of the elements is, evidently, coherent. Though this order, characterized by some existent contradictions, it was built in a slow and laborious way. There were not pré-defined ideas, given by priori. What is now readable is the result of the decantation of certain reflections of the space, today so difficult, of the church. This difficulty is because of the a series of important alterations in the liturgy: think of the celebration of the mass, that now finds the priest turned to the assembly. Such a change transforms the carácter of the celebration entirely and it annuls the sense of traditional space organization, in their several forms and in its slow and permanent evolution. At the same time, this new condition doesn’t justify the interpretation of the church as auditorium. Almost all of the recent projects doesn’t deepen this aspect properly. It was indispensable, consequently, a reflection of the conditions, we could say functional, of the space of the church. However the discussions with the theologians put in evidence the contradiction that involves the several interpretations today. And so it is an unstable program, still to be solved. Though it was evident the need to create a projection of the celebrant, a communion with the assembly, without, unavoidably, if it created its own distance of any auditorium. For this reason I proposed, for the apse, curvatures no longer concave but convex. It is also in this case not a pré-conceived idea, immediately derived of the variation of the liturgy: it is an intuition, born of a series of demands, among the ones which the need to conserve the relationship among the objects and the movements that are part of the celebration.

In the space around the altar a series of elements that participate in the ritual exist: the pulpit, the own altar, the tabernacle, the chairs of the celebrants and the cross, the ones which slowly took form and they defined the space later, in the respect for the movements, pré-established, of the mass. Like this the church acquired form as a sculpture in negative, in which it went establishing continuity relationships and tension among several parts. The plan of the course that, in the inferior floor, links the exterior to the mortuary chapel is the result of the study of what happens in these spaces. It was decisive, in the reality, the knowledge of the meaning of the funeral in the area of Minho.

When I visited the wonderful crematory cemetery of the Dutch arquitecto Pieter Oud, I had the possibility to attend a funereal cerimony I verified that the atmosphere and the relationship of the people are decisively different from what happens in Portugal.

Here, during the funeral, the family and the close friends are very close to the deceased, while many other people, like neighbors stayed at a certain distance, naturally with smaller pain and emotion. It became necessary a sequence of spaces with different characteristics.

Also for this reason I thought of a monastery, in which the people would smoke, talk or eventually, why not, talk of businesses: it is a way to react to that certain discomfort at the encounter, so direct, with the problem of death. This reacção to the pain is not, for instance, in the funerals in Holland, during which it dominates the total silence. The monastery is followed by a first gallery, quite wide, marked by the entrance door, the wall curves and goes down by the apse. Few meters ahead it open up, to the left, another gallery that has, in the bottom, a vertical window from where you can see the highway again. I don’t know what is the connection between this window and the horizontal window of the superior level, but I have faith that the vertical position of the one that is in bass, in the embasament is owed in search of the necessary sensation of the weight, of the gravity. The course finishes at the mortuary chapel, that communicates with the first gallery thanks to a horizontal window.

The people that are in the interior have, the perception of the ones that enter or leave, exactamente as it happens in the superior level, it finishes like an opening that allows the view of the monastery. One returns then, once again, to the starting point, with the noise of the water of a source. In the yard is imposed with private relief the presence of a stairway, that leads again to the superior level. In this project, the unit is checked by the courses that finish in the starting point, circularly. The final sensation is really of a closed place, well delimited.

It always impressed me the obsessive invitation to the meditation that we feel in most of the churches. In fact the openings are frequently put to such height to doesn’t allow look at the exterior, at the same time that the use of the stained glass windows eliminates the continuity and the transparency. ON the other hand, I think that the recent modifications in the liturgy contrast with this vision of closed and segregated space. When I began to study the program, I quickly understood the enormous reach of this rupture in the secular continuity of the tradition. Though I think that this aspect doesn’t have any parallel one in the real life of the Church, in the relationship between the church and the society. For this reason, and in spite of the necessary adaptations, I tried to preserve the continuity with the tradition. And so, observing the carácter of this church sincerely, it seems evident that its conception is substantially conservative. This intention emerges with clarity of the drawing of the plant that in fact expresses a rigid axialidade.

Contextualy, the verticality of the interior is very strong. In fact, in spite of the ship being ofasquare section, the articulation certain elements, such as the two openings behind the altar, it gives the sence of elevation. Several discussions would come to reinforce this continuity idea with the canonic espaciality . The theologians’ pieces of advice were constant and decisive. And so for instance, the baptistery, initially put beside the altar, was later deviated close to the entrance, so that announced the presence of the assembly. Besides, once of the procession of the celebrants has to travel the longitudinal axis of the church, it became necessary the presence of a door, in the wall it curves.

The ritual of the celebration demands, evidently, certain options in the treatment of the space and in the organization of the courses. On some of the interior walls tile was used. It was necessary a resistant baseboard, that obviated the problems of the cleaning and of the maintenance. In the first moment I had thought wasn’t the best about a covering in wood. But this choice soon I thought, because it would have annulled the verticality of the wall and overcoat because the reflection of the light would have been inadequate.Then I thought then about the tile that, produced artistically, conserves a surface slightly irregular; that allows peculiar reflexes of light, while the committees, that are left empty, manifest a sensitive presence.

The continuity with tow and the unit of the color is cut for that presence and for those reflexes. In a first phase, the tile flanked the whole church; then, the wall curves to arrive at the soil, the solution the problem of contact with the doors, was its limited use. One of the objectives that one could not abdicate consisted exactly in avoiding that the details were so evident that it competed with the structure of the space. I worked intensely in the relationship, encounter and transition of the materials. The tile has the function of solving the problem of the continuity, lessening the existent ruptures. The way to solve the problem of the continuity. Lessening the existent ruptures. The way which these three materials are linked – wood, tile and tow – is very special, and there are probably things, that I cannot describe, that appeared to me by the experience of the space, during the construction. In the chapel baptismal I have intention of drawing – inside the wall of the access – illustrations with about six meters of height, deformed according to the perspective. These characters, that together represent Christ’s baptismo, they are of a decisive importance, in this space exceptional, high and narrow, and they will be stylized in way the one that don’t result excessive. They will have a very strong presence, in a dark blue or in black, in way they emphasize her/it in the white tile. I already finished the drawings, but I didn’t have courage of giving begin to the accomplishment: I still have need of time.

The elements that should be drawn are still many.

The own cross was only put after the inauguration. In a first phase I had thought about a cross in wood, with a work of the outlines not very well defined and with volumes, that suggested Christ’s illustration. Then the drawing passed by many other phases, much more simplified, to define, finally, in a cross in that, in the encounter between vertical and horizontal, in the form of the vertical and in the vibrations of the wood, it is immediately evident the human presence. Now I want to cover it with a sheet of gold. The cross was put in a position sincerely gaged, close to the altar, and with light. The sheet gold will give, then, a larger dematerialization and, not demanding protagonism, will react imprevisivelmente with the space. Returning to the exterior, it is noticed a solid presence of the granite that, in this area, is one of the most important elements in the landscape, in the Nature and in the construction. In this project, the platform in granite appears as necessary counterpoint to the lightness and a great geometric conciseness of the white volume. In some hours of the day the church almost seems it dematerializes: some times it seems to disappear, other times in other occasions, it almost stands out violently. And so it was necessary a base that arrested it to the soil.

I had already been in Turkey, where I had studied the Pré-Columbus constructions, that evidently left the mark in certain volumes so accentuated.

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The Interiorized House

Amidst horizontal and vertical planes conditioned by the contours of the terrain, memories of Zen gardens and fire signs, the Armanda Passos house has gently risen – the most recent project by Álvaro Siza in Porto.

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Designed to be lived in at all hours of the day, when light seeks out shade, and shade opens itself to the light, the house-atelier, commissioned by painter Armanda Passos from the most international name in Portuguese architecture, allows the complicity naturally created by the architect with his work to transpire at each step. This is the second dwelling designed by Siza in Porto. The first was built in the 1960’s on the Avenida dos Combatentes. Between project and construction, via the city council approval process, three years passed (2002-2005). The project included the demolition of the existing house and the construction of three volumes, interlinked and joined in a way that defines two patio-gardens, interspersed by existing trees. There is even a wide garden between the border wall of the avenue’s pavement and the front of the building. Additional trees were planted. It is claimed that they establish a bridge between East and West. In an interview with Arquitectura & Construção, Álvaro Siza discusses the completed project:

The Armanda Passos house was built for a friend…
Now she is, at the time we did not have such a close friendship. Afterwards we did, because the building of a home is a great story.

How did you face the challenge?
She is sensitive person with a great attachment to the house and I created, in a special way, not only comfort but also the whole aspect of association with the garden, intimacy, quality of light, etc. It is very pleasing for an architect to have a client that has these requirements in terms of quality.

What about the project?
The project assigned to me includes a residential part with a multifunctional living room that can be projected/extended from a stage that can be raised to varying elevations. The residence and the multifunctional living room are interconnected by a transitional space: an atrium. After that there is an atelier with Northern exposure.

The roof of the atelier has two gradients like in old factories and warehouses, which give it a special light….
Exactly. The so-called shade? It has a high, northern light.

In the interior, you experimented a lot with different volumes…
The ground area is small and I wanted to take as much advantage of the garden as possible in order to avoid creating an isolated mass. As there were three functionally well-defined parts to the project, two of which were connected and one which could function independently, I used this to organise the patios. There is a patio between the multifunctional living room and the residence to the west; there is another next to the driveway; and there is a space in front of the multifunctional living room, between it and a transitional wall that stands between the street and the front of the house. So there are three quite differentiated spaces.

The house is slightly lower than its neighbours. Was this intentional?
All of the neighbouring houses have two floors. In this one, the part most visible from the street is only one storey, though it is taller than average. It is intentional because it was possible to connect the three volumes and thus create patios on all three sides. The two-storey volume and the taller volume, because of the shades, are in the back. The fact that there is an open space in front and on the two sides allowed for the planting of trees and the creation of a certain intimacy in the exterior areas of the lot. As the neighbouring houses are two-storey, if this one were as well, it would feel narrow. In this way, a sensation of generous, roomy interior space is possible.

At the same time, the house contains elements characteristic of the 1950’s –such as the brises-soleil- as well as presenting an eastern spirit. There’s an understanding here between East and West…
There is no doubt that in traditional Japanese architecture –as beautiful as it is- there is this concern. An articulation exists that organizes well-defined exterior spaces –the patios- and allows for quite significant communication that at the same time is intimate with the interior. The famous Zen gardens of Osaka are articulate constructions that connect and depart from the geometric spaces where they create marvellous garden compositions. In this case, the way in which the garden is laid out is not related to the Zen gardens, but a feeling of intimacy exists. As the house does not contain too much glass, it benefits from the communication between the interior and exterior in the large windows that frame these exterior spaces.

The brises-soleil repel the light and cast a shadow on the ground like an architectural memory. The gutters also mark the limits of the brises-soleil on the ground.
The brises-soleil are there to provide protection from the sun and the heat and also create a transition between the interior and exterior.

At a certain point, the volumes almost touch at certain angles…
Yes. The bodies of the atelier together with the veranda and the residence’s brise-soleil almost touch. They are three well-defined structures, but are intended to form a whole. Hence the proximity of elements of one structure with another to establish transitional spaces and unify the ensemble.

There are details that are almost indicative of elements. One recalls an outline of the veranda that functions like an arrow pointing out a tree or a detail of the wall. Thus, the architecture itself follows a path…
It follows the treatment of the garden. The areas where the trees and bushes are planted are based on providing solar protection. For example, the west-facing multifunctional living room window has a brise-soleil. First of all, because the brise-soleil protects the window from the south when the sun is high in the sky. When the sun is low, it doesn’t help so much. Other systems have to be used, like the brise-soleil. When the sun sets, even the neighbouring house provides significant protection. Where the sun could enter diagonally and create discomfort during the summer, an evergreen tree was planted. Next to the window sash of the large window on the western side of the multifunctional living room, there is a deciduous tree because in the winter the house is more comfortable with direct sunlight. During the warm season the house is shaded.

Is it a four-season home?
Yes, it is. These are elementary things that both spontaneous and erudite architecture have always used in the mutual relationship between nature and man-made construction.

At the top of the stairs, the light that enters through the skylight signals the steps as if showing the way. It is a repeating gesture…
I don’t really like violent light and curtains are necessary, but I also like it when a house can stand completely open, when there are transparencies. Controlling light is not only done through curtains, but also through brises-soleil which break the intensity of the light and the location and orientation of the windows themselves, the end goal being thermal comfort. Metering light intensity was something that old houses did, particularly those in the south, of Arab tradition. Patios with very intense light, porticos that create a transition to the interior, then more broken light and even shady areas –they are necessary for comfort.

Your houses have this tradition…
I don’t recall having designed an entirely glass house. Not only because of comfort and to not have to resort to mechanical means, but because I think a house needs to contain different environments. Some are more relaxing and serene, others are more extroverted. A house is made up of these variations. It is apparently simple because many things take place inside a home.

In the interior of the atelier, the light from the shades almost give one a sense of looking through the windows of a cathedral with a rising light….
The intention was not to create a religious environment, but, as the house belongs to a painter, special care is needed with the light in order to create good conditions for painting as well as maintenance. Not too long ago, Armanda Passos contacted me, because, although the shades face north, in the summer there is an hour when the sun enters. Not only can it be bothersome, it can damage the paintings, and therefore we are going to install outdoor blinds so that during these few days, the rays are blocked.

The atelier’s windows give the illusion that they can be pulled down. Almost opening the entire sky…
That doesn’t happen in this case. The windows run all the way to the floor, but they have panes that open. The larger parts are sliding doors and in certain cases move as one piece. There is no crossbar. It is an entire piece of glass that runs inside the wall.

In general, the window and door planes are well defined. Some open broadly, others narrowly. As if you were playing with the volumes in a harmonic game…
It’s a game that requires great effort [laughs], but there is a dimension of pleasure in this effort because the possibility of working for someone who asks for and demands quality is not frequent –whether it is a public or private work.

Everything has been geared toward the client…
Yes, she was extremely demanding with regards to the quality of the construction –which is very good. It’s not enough for the architect to demand quality in construction. The person paying for the building who demands quality has a different impact. Often, who’s paying is not so interested in quality. This demand for quality is considered to be the whim of an annoying architect.

Do the lateral walls that separate the house from its neighbours have different heights for security?
Yes. The walls were utilised. On one of the sides the wall was raised and the neighbours did not raise any problems. The other side was not even touched.

What materials were used for the house?
It’s traditional from a materials point of view. The walls and outer shell are reinforced concrete. In my experience, it is very difficult to mix materials. Any minor error during installation can lead to the appearance of cracks. All of the houses I’ve done in reinforced concrete are in excellent shape. Even the one I did in the 1960’s is concrete and it has never had any problems with cracks, moisture, etc. The supporting wall is in reinforced concrete that is duplicated outside with a wall in stuccoed brick. Between the two is a ventilation space containing thermal isolation material. This means the wall is 45cm thick, including inner and outer stucco. The advantages are the isolation. On the exterior, besides the stucco, there is a granite groove to guard against ground moisture. Most of the periphery contains a coarse gravel band with a drain underneath, precisely so moisture does not affect the stucco.

And with regard to the wood used?
All the wood is painted, the interior and exterior frames, except for the flooring, which is of restored old Scots pine, and the stairs. In areas with water, marble was installed. The kitchen was especially designed for the house, although today it is in production at the factory that built it. Countertops are in marble. The rest is lacquered wood.

Are the window frames made of wood?
Yes. The outer part has an aluminium panel that holds the glass in place and also protects the paint. It’s Iroko wood, treated so that it can handle the paint.

What are the roofing materials?
Earth and vegetation. It is a flat roof in waterproofed concrete and immediately on top is a 40cm layer of soil for the grass.

And the roof of the atelier?
It’s covered with zinc.

The shades provide a very large movement to the entire roof…
Yes, they increase slightly from front to back so that it gently conforms with the street. The house almost goes unnoticed. The recessed part contains two floors. The atelier has higher ceilings because Armanda builds large canvases and really needs the space and breathing room. All of this takes place in the back, cut off by the trees. So, it’s not an exhibitionistic house. It’s more interiorized.

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