Papers by Eduardo Fernandes
Docomomo Journal, 2013
The term “Porto School” designates an identity that relates the pedagogy of a teaching institutio... more The term “Porto School” designates an identity that relates the pedagogy of a teaching institution with the ideas and the architectural practice of its professors and/or former students, resulting of the transmission (and update) of a way of thinking connected to a way of doing: a concern with social responsibility (perceived through the notions of collaboration and relationship with the context), a timeless concept of modernity, an intentional appropriation and miscegenation of models (in a process that we can call critical eclecticism), the belief that architecture should be considered figurative art (perceived in the pace of a promenade thoroughly controlled in time and space), a Vitruvian understanding of the education of the architects, the practice of manual drawing as a primary method of conception and the requirement of accuracy in the processes of work and communication.
This work has the financial support of the Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory la... more This work has the financial support of the Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory - AUR/04509 and FCT through national funds and when applicable of the FEDER co-financing, in the aim of the new partnership agreement PT2020 and COMPETE2020 - POCI 01 0145 FEDER 007528.
The contrast between the social and urban Utopia of Thomas Moore and the English Society of the s... more The contrast between the social and urban Utopia of Thomas Moore and the English Society of the sixteenth century can be used as an excuse to reflect on the concept of Utopia as an idea that is not possible to concretize when it is proposed but can be feasible some years later. In the planning of 20 th-Century New Towns we often find a strong component of Utopia due to the inadequacy to the social and/or technical conditions of the moment. The contrast between the ideal plan and the construct results (when there are any) is often strong, allowing us to consider the existing of an invisible city that is hidden behind the actual urban spaces; it can be a utopia waiting to be concretized or a dystopia caused by an unforeseen evolution of urban spaces and social dynamics. In the 1972 work of Calvino, The Invisible Cities, we find a poetic discourse about the city that can be interpreted as a critical reflection on the ideas and results of the coeval urban practices. In this paper, we intent to present an interpretation of some of the 20 th Century urban ideas based on the reading of the eleven themes of this book. The links that can be established between the various Invisible Cities (moving and combining them, like the pieces of a chess game) inspire the formulation of several assumptions that can be related to the images, forms and ideas of some Archetypes and Utopias of 20 th Century planning: Corbusier's Ville Radieuse, Mies van der Rohe's plan for the IIT in Chicago, Minoru Yamasaki's Pruitt-Igoe housing complex, Robert Venturi's (et al.) studies on Las Vegas and Levittown, the images produced by Archigram and the theoretical work of
Escola Superior Artística do Porto. Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo, 2019
designed an important group of buildings: the municipal market of Vila da Feira, the house in Ofí... more designed an important group of buildings: the municipal market of Vila da Feira, the house in Ofír, the tennis pavilion of Quinta da Conceição in Leça da Palmeira and the primary school of Cedro in Gaia. These buildings are landmarks in the history of Portuguese architecture; in their design, Távora employed traditional materials (stone, timber, tile) and reused vernacular construction techniques (bearing walls, wooden beams and pitched roofs) within a modern approach. This attitude is directly related to the results of the Surveys on Portuguese Vernacular Architecture, promoted by the Union of the Portuguese Architects between 1955 and 1960 and conducted by some of the most renowned Portuguese architects; Fernando Távora was responsible for the work in 'Zone 1' and learned how to recognize the presence of a certain kind of 'modernity' in the Vernacular Architecture of the north of the country. However, after 1960 his language changed and the direct influence of the vernacular began to be less obvious. In order to understand the evolution of his work at this time, it is important to remember that Távora was present at the main international architectural meetings, where he had the opportunity to contact the key names of the worldwide architectural community: he integrated the Portuguese representations present in the last CIAM Congresses and also participated in the Royaumont meeting of the Team Ten. Besides, in 1960 Távora made a three-month journey to the United States and participated in the World Design Conference in Japan. These international contacts and experiences were important to the rethinking of concepts that led to the different languages we can find in the buildings he designed after 1960.
ATHENS JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE, 2015
School has become a global phenomenon. But the expression 'School of Porto' implies much more tha... more School has become a global phenomenon. But the expression 'School of Porto' implies much more than the work of these two architects: it designates an identity that relates the pedagogy of a teaching institution with the ideas and architectural practice of its professors and/or former students. 1 The Porto School was born as an idea of Portuguese Modern Architecture with the work of Fernando Távora, between the publication of "O Problema da Casa Portuguesa" (The Problem of the Portuguese House) in 1945 and the building of the Market in Santa Maria da Feira (1954-1959). This individual action (adapting international modern models to Portuguese physical and cultural context) became a collective trend between 1955 and 1961, the years when the Surveys on Portuguese Vernacular Architecture took place. In the early 70s, we find in Siza's work a non-visual character that reinterprets this identity and anticipates Kenneth Frampton's definition of 'critical regionalism'; 2 in the 80s, the work of Souto Moura will emerge with a personal interpretation of this idea of School. Today, this identity subsists, as a result of the transmission mechanisms of a cognitive methodology-a way of thinking connected to a way of doing. Nonetheless, the persistence of this idea of School, nowadays, implies the respect for the heritage of its way of thinking but, paradoxically, it also needs a continuous critical exercise concerning the update of this legacy. The Script of Porto The identity of the Porto School is the result of the transmission mechanisms of a way of thinking connected to a way of doing. We can trace its origins back to 10th of November of 1945, when a 22-year-old student named Fernando Távora publishes a text called The Problem of the Portuguese House in a weekly journal named Áleo. This was a very courageous text, published under the dictatorship of António Salazar and criticizing the official architectural doctrine of the fascist regime. We can find in this text the main ideas that support the identity of the Porto School: the will to learn from the past while thinking about the present
Este trabalho tem o apoio financeiro do Projeto Lab2PT- Laboratorio de Paisagens, Patrimonio e Te... more Este trabalho tem o apoio financeiro do Projeto Lab2PT- Laboratorio de Paisagens, Patrimonio e Territorio - AUR/04509 e da FCT atraves de fundos nacionais e quando aplicavel do cofinanciamento do FEDER, no âmbito dos novos acordos de parceria PT2020 e COMPETE 2020 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007528.
Universidade do Porto. Centro de Estudos Teatrais, Jul 1, 2016
Em Portugal, a dicotomia nacional / estrangeiro ultrapassa claramente o campo da arquitetura, ond... more Em Portugal, a dicotomia nacional / estrangeiro ultrapassa claramente o campo da arquitetura, onde aliás surge como reflexo de uma preocupação generalizada que já vem do século XIX, mas será ainda um tema central da cultura portuguesa ao longo de toda a primeira metade do século XX. 1 O território português viveu, ao longo de séculos de história, a circunstância de ser um país pequeno e periférico, mas marcado pelo encontro de culturas de diversos povos. 2 Esta tradição secular de cruzamento de culturas adquire novos contornos no final do século XIX, face ao fenómeno crescente da emigração: os emigrantes portugueses (regressados depois de um período de estudo ou trabalho no estrangeiro) trazem consigo influências da cultura dos países onde viveram, o que entra em confronto com as emergentes preocupações de estabilização (ou idealização) de uma identidade nacional.
Joelho: Revista de Cultura Arquitectonica, 2013
O projeto como síntese: a experiência do Atelier Integrado I - FAU/ UFRJ O objetivo deste trabalh... more O projeto como síntese: a experiência do Atelier Integrado I - FAU/ UFRJ O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar a experiência do Atelier Integrado I (AI-1) da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro [FAU/UFRJ]. Apontamos suas principais características, visando uma reflexão crítica sobre seus alcances e possibilidades para futuros desdobramentos.O Atelier Integrado é uma antiga aspiração das escolas de arquitetura, porém de difícil execução, em grande parte devido à organização departamental estanque, a ao próprio currículo da maioria das escolas de arquitetura brasileiras, agravado pela falta de coordenação entre os conteúdos das disciplinas, tratadas como campos autônomos do conhecimento.O AI-1 acontece no final do Ciclo de Fundamentação (4º. período - segundo ano de curso), e reúne seis disciplinas: Projeto de Arquitetura, Projeto Paisagístico, Gráfica Digital, Concepção Estrutural, Processos Construtivos e Saneamento Predial, que estabelece...
Joelho Revista de Cultura Arquitectonica, 2015
Borja was quite an anonymous town until 2012, when the attempt to restore the fresco Ecce Homo sp... more Borja was quite an anonymous town until 2012, when the attempt to restore the fresco Ecce Homo spread its name all around the world.This trivial episode can be seen as an allegory of the complexity of the processes of heritage rehabilitation / preservation / destruction in the globalized world.Starting from the Ecce Homo incident, this text will elaborate on the principles of heritage preservation of the so-called Porto School, using examples of contemporary interventions from Fernando Távora, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto Moura.
Há cerca de três anos, escrevi na revista Laura (número 3, Out. 2005, Departamento Autónomo de Ar... more Há cerca de três anos, escrevi na revista Laura (número 3, Out. 2005, Departamento Autónomo de Arquitectura da Universidade do Minho, Guimarães) um artigo a que chamei “«Escrítica Pop», a revista Unidade e a crítica interna na Escola do Porto no final dos anos 80”, que está na origem do convite que me foi feito para participar neste número 7 da Unidade. Falava sobre os primeiros dois números da revista, que são os únicos que tem significado especial para mim: nos seguintes a Unidade continuaria a ter capacidade de mobilização de alunos e professores para discutir ideias sobre a Escola e a Cultura Arquitectónica do seu tempo, mas a afirmação de identidade de uma geração que também é a minha, com uma visão especialmente crua dos problemas do ensino da época na FAUP, só a encontro nestes dois primeiros números (talvez porque os li com mais atenção). Por isso, volto aqui a falar apenas das revistas de 1988 e 1989; mas porque não faria sentido repetir o que já escrevi, procuro fazer nest...
In the last thirty years, there was a revolution in the way we work and teach, with the introduct... more In the last thirty years, there was a revolution in the way we work and teach, with the introduction and development of different ways of creating and manipulating digital images. Consequently, architects and students give representation more and more importance every passing year. This growing prominence of representation can be dangerous because it can lead us to think that a good project is the one that makes a good rendering. But the perfection of the render is many times hiding the deficient understanding of the problem presented by the client, the site and/or the program. To prevent this from happening, it is important that Studio classes are focused on the ideas behind the images. However, this evolution has a positive side too; induced by the digital paradigm, students can learn how to use another kind of architectural means of research in the process of design. They seem to easily acquire the skills to create images that explain the concepts, the ideas, rather than the actual form of the building that they are representing. So, architecture students can be taught to create and manipulate images that express ideas, as tools for interdisciplinary research that can be used outside the Studio, in other Curricular Units. In the work done for a Theory exercise, students can also develop methods of analytical research as a support for the communication of ideas. This paper will show two examples of the work done by Master students in classes of Studio and Theory of Architecture, trying to explain the specific objectives of each one and to summarize the results. The first one is from 2008-09 (Curricular Unit of Studio III, for second year students); it's a practical exercise that aimed to simulate the relation between architect and client: on an existing site (located near the School), the students had to propose a house for the fictional character "Mr. Valery", from the book with the same name by Gonçalo Tavares. In this book, Mr. Valery (a strange character, inspired in the philosopher Paul Valery) explains his ideas of the ideal holiday house. Confronted with this peculiar client, the students should try to design a holiday house responding to his demands, which had to be suitable to the site and also function like an (almost) normal house. The idea was to confront the student with the idiosyncrasies of a difficult client, but also to make them understand that it is possible to relate the architectural practice with the fields of literature and philosophy. The results showed unusual relations between site, form and function and led to many different approaches to a very common program. The second example is related to the first: in the next year, the same group of students attended Theory III (in the third year of the same course) and were asked to do a group exercise, in which two colleagues had to produce a critical analysis of a previous Studio work that they both shared, comparing their ideas on a paper and on a multimedia presentation. Many of them chose the "Mr. Valery" exercise, and their results were the most interesting: maybe because it was a small program, which was simple to compare, but also because it allowed a very clear discourse on the reasons for the project options, which sometimes were quite the opposite, in the two different proposals.
This work has the financial support of the Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory la... more This work has the financial support of the Project Lab2PT - Landscapes, Heritage and Territory laboratory - AUR/04509 and FCT through national funds and when applicable of the FEDER co-financing, in the aim of the new partnership agreement PT2020 and COMPETE2020 - POCI 01 0145 FEDER 007528.
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Technological Ecosystem for Enhancing Multiculturality - TEEM '13, 2013
ABSTRACT Mobile cloud computing poses a challenge to traditional software vendors. The new mobile... more ABSTRACT Mobile cloud computing poses a challenge to traditional software vendors. The new mobile ecosystem is a new arena in which on-premise and conventional SaaS solutions must be adapted in order to meet user's expectations, emergent features and constraints. This paper presents M-PeopleNet, a project devoted to adopt mobile cloud computing philosophy in the scenario of Meta4, one of the leaders in human and intellectual capital management solutions.
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Papers by Eduardo Fernandes