Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2018 |
Tipo de documento: | Artigo |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743 |
Resumo: | In his acceptance speech for the 2011 Pritzker Prize, architect Eduardo Souto de Moura explained how, when he began practicing after the 1974 revolution, the a ordable housing shortage in Portugal demanded his (belated) modernist approach: To ‘build half-a-million homes with pediments and columns would be a waste of energies’; postmodernism, he added, made little sense where there had ‘barely been any Modern Movement at all’. A ‘clear, simple and pragmatic language’ was needed, and only ‘the forbidden Modern Movement could face the challenge’. Moura’s words perfectly encapsulate the country’s post-revolutionary architectural culture tropes, which dominated published discourse since: modernism, not postmodernism, deserved a place in 1980s Portugal because it had been resisted by a conservative dictatorship; this also explained why it was absent from international architecture surveys. The exception were the works of two other Portuguese exponents, Fernando Távora and Álvaro Siza, co-opted by survey authors since the 1980s in their drive towards global comprehensiveness: Kenneth Frampton, William J. R. Curtis and most recently Jean-Louis Cohen all have celebrated these architects’ site-sensitive, vernacular-infused modernism, occasionally straight-jacketed into critical regionalism constructs. Such recognition was promptly embraced by contemporary Portuguese architects and critics, eager to see their culture associated with a ‘good brand’ of regionalism, resistant and profound; most felt it was the ‘bad’, retrograde regionalism of the 1940s that, manipulated by the regime, countered modernism. Thus a two-pronged ‘forbidden modern movement’ / ‘redeeming critical regionalism’ tale ourished in Portugal. By borrowing the conventions and constructs of international historiography in a politically sensitive and conscience-searching moment of national life, contemporary Portuguese architectural culture e ectively narrowed its own relevance to a handful of names and works, thus attening the country’s diverse forms of modernism: from the tentative to the mature, local, cultural, technological and material speci cities determined a richly textured production that requires scholarly re-examination. |
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Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture CultureModern MovementCritical RegionalismPostmodernismHistoriographyBruno ZeviNuno PortasIn his acceptance speech for the 2011 Pritzker Prize, architect Eduardo Souto de Moura explained how, when he began practicing after the 1974 revolution, the a ordable housing shortage in Portugal demanded his (belated) modernist approach: To ‘build half-a-million homes with pediments and columns would be a waste of energies’; postmodernism, he added, made little sense where there had ‘barely been any Modern Movement at all’. A ‘clear, simple and pragmatic language’ was needed, and only ‘the forbidden Modern Movement could face the challenge’. Moura’s words perfectly encapsulate the country’s post-revolutionary architectural culture tropes, which dominated published discourse since: modernism, not postmodernism, deserved a place in 1980s Portugal because it had been resisted by a conservative dictatorship; this also explained why it was absent from international architecture surveys. The exception were the works of two other Portuguese exponents, Fernando Távora and Álvaro Siza, co-opted by survey authors since the 1980s in their drive towards global comprehensiveness: Kenneth Frampton, William J. R. Curtis and most recently Jean-Louis Cohen all have celebrated these architects’ site-sensitive, vernacular-infused modernism, occasionally straight-jacketed into critical regionalism constructs. Such recognition was promptly embraced by contemporary Portuguese architects and critics, eager to see their culture associated with a ‘good brand’ of regionalism, resistant and profound; most felt it was the ‘bad’, retrograde regionalism of the 1940s that, manipulated by the regime, countered modernism. Thus a two-pronged ‘forbidden modern movement’ / ‘redeeming critical regionalism’ tale ourished in Portugal. By borrowing the conventions and constructs of international historiography in a politically sensitive and conscience-searching moment of national life, contemporary Portuguese architectural culture e ectively narrowed its own relevance to a handful of names and works, thus attening the country’s diverse forms of modernism: from the tentative to the mature, local, cultural, technological and material speci cities determined a richly textured production that requires scholarly re-examination.European Architectural History Network2018-12-19T13:03:29Z2018-12-192018-06-01T00:00:00Zinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743http://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743engAgarez, R. “Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture” in A. Krug and K. Vicente (eds.), Fifth International Conference of the European Architectural History Network (Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts, 2018), 147-55.https://www.eahn2018conference.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EAHN_Proceedings_FINAL.pdfArquiteturaragarez@uevora.pt738https://www.eahn2018conference.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EAHN_Proceedings_FINAL.pdfCosta Agarez, Ricardoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-01-03T19:16:05Zoai:dspace.uevora.pt:10174/23743Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T01:14:30.961621Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
title |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
spellingShingle |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture Costa Agarez, Ricardo Modern Movement Critical Regionalism Postmodernism Historiography Bruno Zevi Nuno Portas |
title_short |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
title_full |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
title_fullStr |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
title_full_unstemmed |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
title_sort |
Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture |
author |
Costa Agarez, Ricardo |
author_facet |
Costa Agarez, Ricardo |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Costa Agarez, Ricardo |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Modern Movement Critical Regionalism Postmodernism Historiography Bruno Zevi Nuno Portas |
topic |
Modern Movement Critical Regionalism Postmodernism Historiography Bruno Zevi Nuno Portas |
description |
In his acceptance speech for the 2011 Pritzker Prize, architect Eduardo Souto de Moura explained how, when he began practicing after the 1974 revolution, the a ordable housing shortage in Portugal demanded his (belated) modernist approach: To ‘build half-a-million homes with pediments and columns would be a waste of energies’; postmodernism, he added, made little sense where there had ‘barely been any Modern Movement at all’. A ‘clear, simple and pragmatic language’ was needed, and only ‘the forbidden Modern Movement could face the challenge’. Moura’s words perfectly encapsulate the country’s post-revolutionary architectural culture tropes, which dominated published discourse since: modernism, not postmodernism, deserved a place in 1980s Portugal because it had been resisted by a conservative dictatorship; this also explained why it was absent from international architecture surveys. The exception were the works of two other Portuguese exponents, Fernando Távora and Álvaro Siza, co-opted by survey authors since the 1980s in their drive towards global comprehensiveness: Kenneth Frampton, William J. R. Curtis and most recently Jean-Louis Cohen all have celebrated these architects’ site-sensitive, vernacular-infused modernism, occasionally straight-jacketed into critical regionalism constructs. Such recognition was promptly embraced by contemporary Portuguese architects and critics, eager to see their culture associated with a ‘good brand’ of regionalism, resistant and profound; most felt it was the ‘bad’, retrograde regionalism of the 1940s that, manipulated by the regime, countered modernism. Thus a two-pronged ‘forbidden modern movement’ / ‘redeeming critical regionalism’ tale ourished in Portugal. By borrowing the conventions and constructs of international historiography in a politically sensitive and conscience-searching moment of national life, contemporary Portuguese architectural culture e ectively narrowed its own relevance to a handful of names and works, thus attening the country’s diverse forms of modernism: from the tentative to the mature, local, cultural, technological and material speci cities determined a richly textured production that requires scholarly re-examination. |
publishDate |
2018 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2018-12-19T13:03:29Z 2018-12-19 2018-06-01T00:00:00Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
format |
article |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743 http://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10174/23743 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv |
Agarez, R. “Peripheral and Central Stances in Portuguese Architecture Culture” in A. Krug and K. Vicente (eds.), Fifth International Conference of the European Architectural History Network (Tallinn: Estonian Academy of Arts, 2018), 147-55. https://www.eahn2018conference.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EAHN_Proceedings_FINAL.pdf Arquitetura ragarez@uevora.pt 738 https://www.eahn2018conference.ee/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EAHN_Proceedings_FINAL.pdf |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
eu_rights_str_mv |
openAccess |
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
European Architectural History Network |
publisher.none.fl_str_mv |
European Architectural History Network |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
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Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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RCAAP |
institution |
RCAAP |
reponame_str |
Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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