Portuguese Official Representation 8th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial 31_Oct / 6 Dec_2009

Organization and Production Sponsor

Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion Parque Ibirapuera

São Paulo, Brazil

Portuguese Official Representation 8th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial 31_Oct / 6 Dec_2009 Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion Parque Ibirapuera / São Paulo / Brazil Commissioner Directorate-General for the Arts of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture General Director of Arts Jorge Barreto Xavier Project Title: Five Áfricas / Five Escolas Curator: Manuel Graça Dias Participants and Projects: Inês Lobo: A school for Cape Verde Pedro Maurício Borges: A school for Guinea-Bissau Pedro Reis: A school for São Tomé and Príncipe Jorge Figueira: A school for Angola Pedro Ravara+Nuno Vidigal: A school for Mozambique Opening: 31 October 2009 > 6 p.m. Press Conference:

30 OCT_2009 > 11 a.m. > Tivoli São Paulo – Mofarrej

Location: Alameda Santos, 1437 • Cerqueira César • CEP - 01419-001 • São Paulo • Brazil

Open to the public: 31 October - 06 December 2009 Website www.dgartes.pt/saopaulo2009/index_en.htm

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Press Release Five teams of Portuguese architects (Inês Lobo, Pedro Maurício Borges, Pedro Reis, Jorge

Figueira and Pedro Ravara/Nuno Vidigal) from the generation born in the 1960s, with

different educational backgrounds, approaches and ways of seeing things, represent Por-

tugal at the 8th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, which runs from 31 Octo-

ber to 6 December 2009.

The Portuguese official representation, organised and produced by the Directorate Gene-

ral for the Arts of the Ministry of Culture, is curated by the architect Manuel Graça Dias

and developed under the generic title Five Africas/Five Schools.

The Portuguese proposal involves five projects for school buildings in the five Portuguese-

speaking African countries (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Angola

and Mozambique). The designs are characterised by their architectural quality, adjust-

ment to local conditions and strong sustainability in terms of future upkeep and social

and environmental response.

From the institutional standpoint, Portugal’s proposal is especially interesting as it aims

to meet the Declaration of Millennium Development Goals (adopted in 2000 by all 189

member States of the United Nations General Assembly), namely “Goal 2 – Guarantee

that by 2015 all children of both sexes complete a full course of primary schooling (...)”.

Based on the elaborated designs, five models were made at an expressive scale and are the

main subject of this exhibition. A catalogue has been published which illustrates the wor-

king methods and results of the action.

The effort is not meant to end with the exhibition in São Paulo, as the commissioned pro-

jects may later continue on to their respective destinations, with the Portuguese govern-

ment (through commercial or institutional sponsorships) seeking to assure construction.

A ‘second edition’ of the catalogue should eventually come out, including one or two sec-

tions with final results of the operations to build the various projects.

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Architecture Where the Action Is Jorge Barreto Xavier Director-General for the Arts When in 2008 I proposed to the Minister of Culture that Portugal’s presence at the 8th

São Paulo Architecture Biennial correspond to a creative architectural project that could

generate impacts in a specific place, more concretely through proposals to design schools

in the five Portuguese-speaking African countries, his response was an immediate indica-

tion to move forward.

Manuel Graça Dias was the invited curator. His creative capacity, career as an architect,

professor and critic of architecture, are aspects that along with his skills as a communica-

tor and team leader have made him an outstanding reference in the current panorama of

Portuguese architecture.

An official presentation in architecture can document architecture (past or present), a

reflection or a utopia. None of these possibilities are minor. Yet this was not the path we

chose.

Doesn’t the search for a prior use limit a creative project?

As can be seen, the value of this subject matter depends on the scope of the question – it

is very controversial when done in the field of the visual and spectacle arts (to simplify).

It would nevertheless be strange for it to have no place in the fields of architecture and

design.

Despite the growing tendency to put forward aesthetic proposals that are not functional, it

is hard to accept an unusable architecture or design object. The respective disciplines

cannot give up their utopias and ‘useless’ programmes; yet there is a moment which even-

tually becomes

the moment of architecture, that of what’s built – potency and act.

Critical capacity, school work, learning, creativity, technical competence, formative per-

ception, notions about territory and political awareness, all very relevant for architecture,

are expressed through a proposition made tangible.

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The three-dimensional material nature of the proposal can no longer be ‘useless’ like the

installation, sculpture or monument. Its relational standing will not – though it also can –

be that of an installation, sculpture or monument (architecture is nowadays sometimes

categorised as ‘play space/urban monument’, continuing as always to be a representation

of culture and power). Assuming a space of its own for contemporary architecture’s social

presence with respect to the arts, the Portuguese official presentation at the 8th São Paulo

Architecture Biennial seeks to affirm creation in architecture through its relationship with

a tangible space, and furthermore its relationship with a place – and to muster in that

relationship the place’s social density.

Portuguese history in Africa is a long story. When the history of the future is built, Portu-

guese architecture may have its role. As indicated throughout the catalogue, the influence

of Portuguese architectural work in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique,

and São Tomé and Príncipe undeniably marks the 20th century. That marking can almost

be considered the space for architectural freedom which the then Métropole did not allow

our architects. That’s why some of the best examples of architectural Modernism designed

by Portuguese are found in Africa, showing that we also belong to that space. And that

belonging should hence be visited – not as a colonial but rather as a relational act.

Portuguese democracy has built over the last several decades a new relationship with each

of the Portuguese-speaking African countries. The search for a mutual outlook based on

equality of rights and duties naturally calls up many old ghosts.

It is with projects like “Five Africas/Five Schools” that we can set free those ghosts, which

for some reason we ourselves confined. The architects chosen by Manuel Graça Dias for

this presentation are Inês Lobo, Jorge Figueira, Pedro Maurício Borges, Pedro Ravara and

Nuno Vidigal, and Pedro Reis, and they have had direct and personal contact with the

countries comprising this project. In the story of their travels and experiences which are

the departure point for their proposals, we see that it is not possible to carry out meetings

between cultures that are not meetings between people. It would not be possible to do this

project out of the respective studios, for it does not just imply designing buildings, but

also fostering encounters. (…)

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Five Africas / Five Schools Manuel Graça Dias Curator of the Official Portuguese Representation

The Portuguese presentation at BIA’09 was conceived as an opportunity to undertake a

more propositive, more useful action, an opportunity to construct a situation with chan-

ces of continuity – which would not be exhausted in this show.

The focus was purposely turned to Africa and the five Portuguese-speaking countries

which are historically and emotionally closer to us. The major shortfalls faced by these

young nations as they struggle to build fairer and more democratic societies amid the

huge imbalances caused by an irrational global economy are well known. The subject of

education and respective constructions naturally seemed most compelling to us, where it

would make the most sense to stimulate and promote.

Five schools for Africa, exercises based on real foundations, less self-referenced and less

umbilical; exercises almost at the limits of architecture’s possibilities: there, where living

conditions would definitely not be formatted by European comfort and where there was

an acute sense of social urgency, obliging a major and deliberate effort to invent some-

thing else. Scarcity and sustainability faced on their own territory and not as socio-

decorative, academic or rhetorical propositions.

The projects Portugal brings to the Biennial are therefore the first phase of a more far-

reaching action: that of having an appropriate architectural object built in each of these

countries; adjusted to local scale, local conditions, local materials and technologies.

Schools that are simple and easy to build, but not overly frugal or limiting architecture’s

capabilities; schools that are durable, strong and easy to maintain, not hostage to sophis-

ticated technologies and impossible future repair; schools that are appealing, symbolic

and friendly, where the most customary local construction methods and materials can

take on new expression, inspiring other inventive applications and unabashed pride and

awareness regarding the traditions which time has disseminated in the different African

regions.

Meanwhile, five architects had to be chosen. We focused on the generation born in the

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1960s, looking for five professionals with solid and consistent track records and with a

recognised ability to deal with the tougher sort of problems.

Architects set on continuing a practice which may in the end also characterise the very

history of a disciplinary activity we could call Portuguese: the ability to mix, the inclina-

tion and desire to understand the Other, the boldness of heterodox proposition, the wil-

lingness to experiment before new scenarios.

They are five different Africas, the places − Achada Fazenda in Cape Verde, Cacheu in

Guinea-Bissau, Santa Catarina in São Tomé and Príncipe, Benguela in Angola and Vila do

Milénio (Nampula) in Mozambique − for which the five schools were designed.

They also comprise five schools (educations, ways of seeing, manners, sensitivities) – five

distinct possibilities that the five teams have conceived.

The works which Inês Lobo, Pedro Maurício Borges, Pedro Reis, Jorge Figueira and Pedro

Ravara/Nuno Vidigal leave us here illustrate the generous hypothesis that for each place,

each problem, the architects designed a unique response, using their sensitivity to isolate

a specific critical possibility: what they deem best, fairer, more appropriate and more

beautiful to place at the disposal of the specific and unique people who will inhabit same.

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National Representatives Lista dos arquitectos escolhidos e países onde se encontram a executar um projecto de escola

INÊS LOBO (1966)

Achada Fazenda

Cape Verde

PEDRO MAURÍCIO BORGES (1963)

Cacheu

Guinea-Bissau

PEDRO REIS (1967)

Santa Catarina

São Tomé and Príncipe

JORGE FIGUEIRA (1965)

Benguela

Angola

PEDRO RAVARA (1964) /NUNO VIDIGAL (1964)

Millennium Village (Lumbo/Nampula)

Mozambique

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Projects Inês Lobo Basic Education School for Achada Fazenda Achada Fazenda, Santiago, Cape Verde

Inês Lobo: A school for Cape Verde. Model.

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Can architects aspire to design informality? To design something in an entirely different scale would be an unnecessary rupture. The dominant scale of the spaces where people meet seems ideal to me. Maybe that’s why I didn’t want a school with a big playground, but rather a number of inside and outside spaces close in scale which can be grouped, allowing a continual and renewed transforma-tion of the teaching space. I don’t know how to design informality. An architect’s activity is profoundly rational and based on rigour of concept and geometry, so the school won’t be a project that seeks to plan informality. Conversation between Inês Lobo and Ricardo Carvalho

Projects Pedro Maurício Borges Cacheu unified basic education school Campo neighborhood, Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau

Pedro Maurício Borges: A school for Guinea-Bissau. Model.

A survey of available resources was conducted, given that the Cacheu Basic School should be built only using Guinea-Bissauan raw materials and manpower. The contingencies determined a generic configuration noted in many other constructions in the country.

Portuguese architecture was once ‘architecture of resistance’. If anything remains of that resistance perhaps it is the ability to record its past. The rest, such as invoking a corre-sponding scarcity, is just romanticism. In Guinea-Bissau, where there’s a lack of nearly everything, to build a new memory such as the Cacheu Basic School may well be an action taken against oblivion. Diogo Seixas Lopes

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Projects Pedro Reis Nursery School and Kindergarten for Santa Catarina Santa Catarina, São Tomé, São Tomé and Príncipe

Pedro Reis: A school for São Tomé and Príncipe. Computer rendered image.

This isn’t the first time that Pedro Reis has designed in situations marked by extreme need and among populations where ancestral community practices persist. He previously worked in East Timor at the service of the World Bank and the Education Ministry, in the programme to recuperate school facilities and on the plan for the church in Quelicai, experiencing how “the limits imposed by a context condition the exploration and defini-tion of a programme, a space or a form”. Some of the principles were passed on to the new project: to involve local people in cons-truction of the new facility by using local techniques, “including a maximum of available materials” or emphasising the solutions’ durability. Even without failing to be realistic, Pedro Reis’s contribution is precisely that of not abdi-cating from a ‘learned view’, in a materialisation that may well signify the democratisation of a more universal ‘right to architecture’. Ana Vaz Milheiro

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Projects Jorge Figueira Portuguese School for Benguela Benguela, Angola

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The project for the Portuguese School in Benguela, coordinated by Jorge Figueira, consti-tutes suitable grounds to reflect on how architecture can assert itself as a factor of urba-nity in not just the physical but also the trans-cultural sense. The complex’s plan consists of a uniform grid of long streets with repeating series of pro-perties; it places the school facility at the ‘centre of gravity’ of the whole, although situa-ting it in a relatively isolated manner. Bearing in mind that centrality, Jorge Figueira chose to dialogue with the property’s lines of force, extending the building and giving each of its ‘arms’ a structuring function. He somehow resumed here the ‘(infra)structuring’ sense he had seen and admired in the typological and morphological layouts of the ‘modern schools’ in Luanda and Lobito. Nuno Grande

Jorge Figueira: A school for Angola. Model.

Projects Pedro Ravara + Nuno Vidigal Primary School for Millennium Village in Lumbo Lumbo, Nampula, Mozambique

Pedro Ravara + Nuno Vidigal: A school for Mozambique. Computer rendered image.

The project experience of Pedro Ravara and Nuno Vidigal is associated to the pleasure of inventing an architecture enlivened by its own forms – coloured, textured and in constant tension. The forms derive from a pragmatic and operative rationale which joins the pro-gramme with the constructive possibilities of a rich and diversified materials market. Perhaps the fairest outcome of the problem put to these architects, two Europeans desig-ning in Africa, is the strategic withdrawal. The materialisation of idea in form and tactile enjoyment of the imagined work of architecture are pleasures specific to their own cultu-re. Only that no architect gives up his or her delicious vices, aware that resistance lies in construction of the image, place where we live. Fortunately, even the most mathematic of architects does not admit denying architecture as we know it. André Tavares

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Biography Curator Manuel Graça Dias

Degree in Architecture from the Lisbon School of Fine Arts (ESBAL, 1977).

Doctorate in Architecture from the Porto University Foundation (FAUP), with disserta-

tion on “After the Road City” (2009).

Began academic career teaching in the Project area at FAU/TL (1985-1996). Currently

teaches in the Architecture Theory area at FAUP (since 1997) and the Project area at DA/

UAL (since 1998), which also directed (2000-2004), and visiting professor at DAP/FA of

the Milan Polytechnic (since 2003).

Began professional career in Macau working with the architect Manuel Vicente (1978-

1981); currently lives and works in Lisbon, where in 1990 founded the studio CONTEM-

PORÂNEA with Egas José Vieira (EJV), with whom received the 1999 AICA Prize/

Ministry of Culture (Architecture) for his body of work.

In the area of architecture criticism was author of a fortnightly program VER ARTES/

ARQUITECTURA on TV2 (1992-1996); weekly contributor on TSF radio (1995-1999); and

regular contributor to the weekly Expresso (2001-2007). Is Director of JA-Jornal Arqui-

tectos (2009-2011), organ of the Portuguese Architects Association (which also directed

from 2000 to 2004); is still Chairman of the Portuguese Section of the AICA (since 2008).

Author of various books of criticism or dissemination of architecture-related subjects.

Recent works include: Ao volante pela cidade: 10 Entrevistas de arquitectura (Lisbon:

Relógio d’Água, 1999); O homem que gostava de cidades (Lisbon: Relógio d’Água, 2001);

Passado Lisboa presente Lisboa futuro (Lisbon: Parceria A. M. Pereira, 2001); 30 Exem-

plos: arquitectura portuguesa no virar do século XX (Lisbon: Relógio d’Água, 2004);

Manual das cidades (Lisbon: Relógio d’Água, 2006); 11 Cidades/Cities, projectos/

projects, 1995-2005 (with EJV, Porto: Civilização, 2006).

In 2006 distinguished by His Excellency the President of the Portuguese Republic Jorge

Sampaio with the grade of Commander of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator.

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Biographies National Representatives Inês Lobo

Lisbon, 1966. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon Technical

University (FAUTL, 1989).

Has taught Project IV and V in the Architecture Department of Lisbon Autonomous Uni-

versity (DA/UAL) since 2000.

Professional training and collaboration with the architect João Luís Carrilho da Graça

(1990-1998).

Began independent professional practice with the Inês Lobo/Pedro Domingos studio

(1998- 2001), earning first prize in various public competitions: corpus of amphitheatres

on the campus of the University of the Azores, Ponta Delgada (1998-2002); chancery and

residence of the Portuguese Embassy, Berlin (1998); and Camélias Park, Porto (2000).

Since 2002 has headed the Inês Lobo/Arquitectos studio. Awarded first prize in various

public competitions: Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education at Pole II of Coim-

bra University (2004); urban renewal of the Rainha D. Leonor municipal housing com-

plex (2005); renovation of the Fábrica dos Leões Arts and Architecture Complex at Évora

University (2006); and new public library and regional archive of Angra do Heroísmo and

offices of the Regional Directorate of Culture, Terceira, Azores (2006).

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Biographies National Representatives Pedro Maurício Borges

Lisbon, 1963. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon Technical

University (FAUTL, 1986).

Doctorate in Architecture in the area of Architecture Theory and History from Coimbra

University, with dissertation on “The Design of Territory and Construction of Landscape

in São Miguel, Azores, in the Second Half of the 19th Century, through One of its Leading

Figures” (2008).

Project I and Project III teacher in the Architecture Department of the Faculty of Sciences

and Technology of Coimbra University (FCT-UC) since 1991.

Ex-aequo Revelation Prize in the National Architecture Awards, First Works, 1998, for the

project for the Pavilion of the Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Fishing, 1988 Azo-

res Fair, Santana, São Miguel, Azores.

2002 Secil Prize for the Pacheco de Melo house project, São Vicente Ferreira, São Miguel,

Azores.

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Biographies National Representatives Pedro Reis

Silves, 1967. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Porto University

(FAUP, 1994).

Also studied at South Bank University of London (1992) and on scholarship from the

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (1987-1994).

Project I and Project II teacher in the Architecture Department of Lisbon Autonomous

University (DA/UAL) since 2006.

Professional training with the architect Fernando Távora (1993) and collaborated with the

architect Eduardo Souto de Moura (1994-1998).

Worked in New York with the architect Toshiko Mori (1998-2000) and in East Timor

(2000-2002), where coordinated technical team of the United Nations Mission

(UNTAET), responsible for rebuilding the country’s public buildings; also technical coor-

dinator of the FSQP school requalification project administered by the World Bank.

Independent professional practice since 2002 and designer of various projects; earned

first prize in public competitions for the Elvas Contemporary Art Museum, the new AMI

headquarters in Cascais and the High Sports School in Melgaço.

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Biographies National Representatives Jorge Figueira

Vila Real, 1965. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Porto Univer-

sity (FAUP, 1992).

Doctorate in Architecture in the field of Architecture Theory and History from Coimbra

University, with dissertation on “The Perfect Periphery: post-modernity in Portuguese

architecture, 1960s-1980s” (2009).

Teaches History of Contemporary Architecture in the Architecture Department of the

Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Coimbra University (FCT-UC), where has lectured

since 1992, and in the Doctorate Programme in Architecture at FAUP (since 2009).

In the past decade curator of various architecture gatherings and exhibitions, among

them the Insertions Seminar (DA/FCTUC and Coimbra 2003/co-curator) and the exhibi-

tions, “Europe, Portuguese architecture in emission” (Portugal Group at the 2007 Lisbon

Architecture Triennial /co-curator) and “Álvaro Siza: modern redux” (Instituto Tomie

Ohtake, São Paulo, Brazil, 2008).

Author of the books: Escola do Porto: Um mapa crítico (Coimbra: eIdIarq, 2002);

SMS:SOS. A nova visualidade de Coimbra, (Concepção e coord./ Coimbra: 2003/Edições

ASA, 2003); Agora que está tudo a mudar: Arquitectura em Portugal (Casal de Cambra:

Caleidoscópio, 2005); A noite em arquitectura (Lisbon:Relógio d´Água, 2007); and Álva-

ro Siza. Modern redux (ed./Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2008).

In the project area worked in the FAUP Studies Centre (1991-1996); carried out renewal

projects at the Crystal Palace complex in Porto, including restoration of the Acoustic Shell

and renovation of the restaurant; selected (co-author) in the “Ideas Competition for the

Expo’98 Site (Lisbon, 1993); has worked since 1998 on project for the university campus

in Angra do Heroísmo in the Azores, where co-designed the Classrooms, Auditorium and

Library building (1999-2007); also planned for the same campus the Social Action Ser-

vices building (2006-2009), Interdepartmental building (under construction) and Stu-

dents Association building.

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Biographies National Representatives Pedro Ravara e Nuno Vidigal

Pedro Ravara

Lisbon, 1964. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon Technical

University (FAUTL, 1988). Master of Architecture and Building Design from the School of

Architecture and Planning/State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY), 1993.

Doctorate in Architecture from FAUTL, with dissertation on “The Consolidation of a Prac-

tice: from the reinforced concrete factory building in the USA to European modernity

models” (2008). Taught at SUNY (1992); at the School of Design of the Lisbon Institute of

Arts and Design (1993-1999); as Resident Professor for the Abroad Program, Port Cities,

of the College of Design/University of Minnesota; and at FAUTL (since 1998, currently

Auxiliary Professor).

Worked with the architects João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Manuel Graça Dias and Manuel

Vicente from 1988 to 1991. In 1991 founded with the architect Nuno Vidigal the office

BAIXA, Atelier de Arquitectura, Lda. Has won prizes and earned recognition nationally

and internationally, with projects in Portugal and abroad.

Nuno Vidigal

Lisbon, 1964. Degree in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture of Lisbon Technical

University (FAUTL, 1988). Has taught in the School of Design of the Lisbon Institute of

Arts and Design (IADE) since 1998 (since 2007 as Guest Auxiliary Professor and since

2008 as coordinator of the scientific area of the Environments Project for the Masters in

Production Design).

Worked with the architects Egas de Vidigal Vieira/Victor Manuel Rodrigues and Manuel

Graça Dias from 1988 to 1992. In 1992 founded with the architect Pedro Belo Ravara the

office BAIXA, Atelier de Arquitectura, Lda. Has won prizes and earned recognition natio-

nally and internationally, with projects in Portugal (mainland and islands) and abroad.

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Images

High resolution images are available at www.dgartes.pt/saopaulo2009/index_en.htm

Photos of the models and pictures of the participating architects: Luísa Ferreira

Contacts

Coordination and Production

Manuel Henriques . mhenriques@dgartes.pt

Directorate-General for the Arts of the Portuguese Ministry of Culture

Av. da Liberdade, 144 - 2º andar . 1250-146 Lisboa

T [+351] 211 507 010 . F [+351] 211 507 261 . E

geral@dgartes.pt

Press

Sandra Vieira Jürgens

E: sjurgens@dgartes.pt • M.+351 933 451 775

Website

www.dgartes.pt/saopaulo2009/index_en.htm

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