TO BUILD A SCHOOL. DA/UAL

The second part of the book includes the interviews to relevant individuals who have left their mark in architecture. The visual in the text reminded me of cinema, a film with several directors and parallel stories with a common thread. In fact, it reminded me of a documentary rather than a film, a documentary whose protagonists are conveyed to us through the interview, when the interviewees share their options, indecisions, thought processes, when they evidence their humanity, knowing that the equipment we use every day has been designed by them, that they have contributed to the architecture that surrounds us.

Though they talk about theory, research, architecture history, they use a very visual discourse, in which traveling is always present and provides a dimension beyond time and space to our reading, taking us from classical to contemporary creations.

I do not know much about architecture, but I am fascinated by beauty, by what attracts the eye, by novelty, comfort, simple, safe, quality, transforming dreams into places we enjoy being or passing through (such as bridges) and that spark our imagination. They make us feel good. And that does not seem very important, but it is.

The interviews share (almost) unanimous feelings on the Lisbon and the Porto Architecture Schools – respect and admiration for those professors that left a mark in the lives of the interviewees, the idea that an architect must intervene more in political terms, the close relation between studying and working at an office, first projects designed on familiar topics or with friends, the importance of traveling. All this is complemented with a shared global view that lead us to conclude that vision must be direct, without intermediaries. This book has brought back so many trips, memories, amazement I had kept in my memory, very neatly stored, and that have now gained new prominence.

The book also includes, besides those shared feelings, the subversion of Manuel Graça Dias (1953 – 2019), José Adrião’s openness to discovering architecture by students at different points in the program, Inês Lobo’s holistic and multidisciplinary perspective , Nuno Mateus’s idea of learning about your place in the world, Manuel and Francisco Aires Mateus’s importance of persistence to attain and maintain freedom by, Ricardo Carvalho’s combination of the richness of the past with that of the present , João Santa- Rita’s understanding of the whole city and the land on which a building is constructed, Pedro Reis’s search for impact in people’s lives that reflects on the architect’s personal feedback, Telmo Cruz’s observation of popular architecture around the world and the acknowledgment that there are connecting threads in decision-making that optimize solutions, João Gomes da Silva’s relevance of collaboration, the maritime perspective, João Luís Carrilho da Graça’s attempt to catch the waves that derives from your attention to experiences with apparently no connection with architecture, by, Manuel Vicente’s (1934-2013) straightforward questioning to learning from books, by which, as a librarian, I have left for last, unwilling to accept his perspective though understanding it in the context.

All these perspectives have contributed to the School and I am not sure that students realize its dimension, even those who have moved to Lisbon on purpose to attend it. I believe they do know they are in a place that is different but perhaps only later in their lives will they be aware of its uniqueness and the people that made it so.