Antonio Caramelo: a life dedicated to Architecture

For almost eight years, Antonio resided in Ronald Lago’s office, his protector in
architecture. During the day Caramelo attended clients in the office, and at night this same
office was turned into a dormitory. The difficulties he went through strengthened his will to
continue the battle, and in the 70’s, Caramelo started to compose his first sketches on
paper. Since then, Caramelo survived all the ups and downs of the national economy, the
evolution of the architectural styles, Salvador’s growth from a coastal city to a metropolis,
and had the chance to travel to a number of capitals in the country.
Antonio Caramelo’s Office is to be found in the same building for 28 years now,
where this three story building is located in a big avenue that connects Salvador’s seafront to
a valley avenue. Caramelo considers his office the place where he lives, while his house is
seen as the place where he visits his family. This joking around is due to the fact that for him,
work is a leisure time and not an obligation. With this thought in mind, Caramelo spent
eleven days straight at his office working on a project, far from the sunlight outside his
window. Once he got home from work and his son Frank, who was eight years old at the
time, came up to him and asked: “Daddy, do you still live here?” After that, Caramelo
reduced his working time by dropping the number of trips and by not working during the
weekends, but unfortunately, for his family, the promise did not last long.
In opposition to what most people believed, Caramelo’s family understands his
position in relation to his work and gives him unconditional support. “Before we got married,
I came to my wife and said that I had a revelation to make. She stared at me with wide eyes
when I confessed I had an affair, and that even though I was married, I would keep this extra
matrimonial relation. She almost passed out, and so I immediately told her that my lover
was Architecture, and that for her I would abdicate my schedule and my weekends if
necessary,” he remembers.
All of his stories are told in a poetic way, in fact, this is a talent he usually develops
when writing about the projects he has done and about the ones he has been working on.
Are his, the following quotes: “On the daily job of architecture, I always tried to create
spaces that touches people, just like buildings drawn by the sun does”, “I want to use in each
of my projects, possibilities that allows me to, tomorrow, read the world of today”.