Paulo David formulates that architecture as a whole physical and personnel and must be the subject of contemplation and maturation. An exercise sometimes difficult in a world increasingly chaotic, dehumanized and forgetting the core of everything, the man in his emotional and spatial dimension.
There's obviously the connotation on your works with the geological characteristics of the island, the large masses, the buildings 'fortress' cast in stone. In the creative process of making architecture can become a limit or is it always a challenge?
Paulo David: It can be a joint thing, that is, a limitation may be both a challenge and that is what makes the job interesting and exciting indeed. It is a condition with which we have to work like any other. Because we have to work with the economic support, as with the program. The geology is more a struggle to do that in some cases becomes a form of experience and motivation to perform the work itself. Almost in the genesis of the building itself sometimes.
you said recently that o the House of Seedlings was hypocritical because it was not made of stone, but imitated ...
This came in the wake of a conversation in which Souto Moura spoke of this father, I believe that he taught and he was the one who approach the issue of hypocrisy. And the interesting finding was that the well known easyness of Eduardo and way the did it. These words of his, are quite revealing and cutts any prejudices that we may have about the architect himself. I found it very exciting. And nowadays the architecture supports this very issue of hypocrisy because it builds on the lack of authenticity with the traditional relationship that we had on the matter and on the materials. And takes just a few tackles which is the case if the House of Seedlings, which is not a stone is coated with an openly intent on textural and almost simultaneously a kind of relationship with the mountain itself and the striatum of the mountains that are somewhat humanized through the structures that men have been doing over time, which is the case for terraces. And those streaks that the design itself of the House of Seedlings needed is that a lot, these lines in our territory, has sequences in these choreographies of lines that are the terraces that support the agricultural structures and that is the case with this building. The stone is more of a support in context.
But architecture must take place entirely in nature is that the ultimate goal?
In this case it was. Paulo Mendes da Rocha said one thing that is the first of the structures is geography. And that's were it starts the architecture. It begins where this relationship always between nature and artifice. And this has been the attitude of the exploratory of my studio. This landscape is intense and we have a relationship with nature too strong. I do the practice of contemplation from infancy. I have memory of my five, six years of visiting sights on the island with my parents who taught me very early to contemplate. Led me to this relationship and this impact with nature.
When you talks about your architecture taking into account the impact and having to take into account what the customer wants, how do you combine these two factors? What they want and what feels right for that terrain, for that zone and its size.
It's very, very rare. I have little control over it. It's very rare that customers have a thorough study of the program. On the surface there is no investment in the program. There's the general idea of what they want, how much they want to spend, but there is not a deepening. And it shows very large number of cases, no investment in the program can be manage. It is strange sometimes feel that the works are estimated at a given value and then has a value completely opposite in the conclusion. One cause is the lack of investment. People often increasingly realize, only after maturing in the program, after the work is completed. What sometimes makes it difficult to respond effectively when it comes to a building. And the program is a component of the architecture and it should be the concern of the architects as a large investment, in addition to other effects. And it carries the architecture.
your present project at hand has equated the impact of happiness in a building. This is an issue is seldon addressed in architecture. Why the need of this dimension for a daily care center for the elderly?
It was a book that moved me very much from Valter Hugo Mãe the "Spanish-making machine" that addresses this very issue. It is the theme of happiness and the elderly. It is a very strong theme which mirrors our society, how we deal, how we manage and how we are available to handle the extension, the longevity, that people deserve to have. Or those who were fortunate enough to have it. How to Draw the spectrum of this big thing and how we do it all wrapped up with a thriving legislation which is perfectly disjointed of society. And how do we get all that, from the functional requirements that are understandable and comprehensible, the legislation that is very strong in this area and the people who will live there. The ideal of such a building would be an extension of our continuity with these people, with the elderly. Possibly our inability to maintain or provide some intensive care, or the desired attention leads us to create these buildings. They should be an extension of home.
But how does this translate into architecture? One area where they can be surrounded thenselves with the objects of their everyday life is that it?
Exactly. For now carrying their memories and may be familiar with the spatiality. It is common in our country that an old person now living in a villa. I'll carry someone of a big house for a building of two to four floors and a lift, ramps and stairs that is all that they have not. And how do I counter this? The programmatic requirements, legislation and be inhabiting. Therefore, so that she does not think, and was curious to visit we made to a home, one of those ladies said that this is a jail. The jail in this case is a departure from everything that was familiar and not exactly the building where you feel physically imprisoned, and the building of the system of care that she paid, but lost in the background. How does the architect draw it? I'm more worried about these relationships, these such natures. At the bottom is a continuation of nature, what interests me is the continuation of physical landscapes, personal and how we can draw. The architect is increasingly like that, and this crisis is teaching us this. The architects chose to exercise great exuberance and scale of buildings and easily distanced themselves from these people, man. There is a spirit that man has is to draw back which is for man and how is he is today? And how will be the man of tomorrow? This is also one of the challenges of architecture.
And this approach applies to a national level?
Yes, and I speak also of Japan, today's architectural practice in this country has to do with the very strong currents of economic crises that the country had. Japan is now a theater experience intense due to the crisis and the doctrines that were broken. And then came the greatest possible freedom in physical space.
So agree with the statement of Souto Moura for the disappearance of the great names in architecture?
I think that this quest for an architecture show, has some difficulties in the investment area, I think they are displaced in the face of our economic situation.
But are you refering to the portuguese case, or the world?
No, not global. I think Portugal is not alone in this process of crossing to rethink its structure and economic model. Throughout Europe. And some countries can not fall in that system. You can structure itself and rethink itself, will likely be broken memories. How we have in Japan, the physical structure is not made clear by a memory, for an identity. She's too short to do with our thinking of the west and ephemeral relationships. And with a capacity for transformation and change very large, very tolerant and visible. This makes it very interesting.
