IJUP08 - Universidade do Porto

The Architect’s House
Joana Ferraz 1
1 Architecture graduate, Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal.
The architect’s own house is a recurring subject in architecture publications. The works of
domestic architecture are analyzed by their characteristics, the presence of the author,
influences, design process, etc. But what happens when the relation client/architect is
altered? What happens when architect and client are one and the same person? Which are
the main differences between the current outputs and their own house? What to state when
the subject of study is “The Architect’s House"[1]?
My interest, in this particular subject, came from a casual reading of a Spanish book
regarding the same theme – La casa del arquitecto [2]. However, this study employs
bibliographical references associated which such distinctive areas as philosophy and
sociology: authors as Foucault or Heidegger, architecture historians as Joseph Rykwert, or
even writers, as T.S.Elliot, carried out active parts.
The investigation’s net is sewed, fundamentally, within the Portuguese 20th century,
unifying an assembly of apparently divergent works but after all with a common
background. Besides representing epochs and tangible architectonic tendencies, through
them one would be able to reproduce the historical line of domestic architecture in the past
century: they reproduce the architect’s personal history, reflecting ideals and choices,
architectonic principles and aspired lifestyle.
To understand the spirit and variables of the conception and execution of the architect’s
own house, preceding the case studies and subsequent national contextualization, some
chapters specifically explore themes such as the origin of the creative act, the architect’s
adaptation and proximity to the creative individual/author’s task, the performance of the
author’s role in society, and the confrontation and affinity of the individual with the
collective. Subsequently, articulations were established between such concepts as
architect/individual/author and house/residence/home and several of its possible
interpretations, as well as the different varieties of architect’s own houses including its
correlation with heterotopies.
In perspective this is a fertile field with countless ramifications that may be subject to
future inquiries such as establishing parallelisms between Portuguese cases and those of
foreign architects, or a more detailed approach on the variability between own houses and
remaining works of the same author. “The Architect’s House” is, ultimately, an
architectural object that permits others to perceive, with clarity, the heart and the
contradictions in the architecture of a specific author.
References:
[1] Ferraz, Joana, (2007), The Architect’s House, Graduation Thesis in Architecture, Faculty of
Architecture of Porto University [Ferraz, Joana, (2007), A Casa do Arquitecto, Prova Final de
Licenciatura em Arquitectura, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, Porto.]
[2] Zabalbeascoa, Anatxu, (2000), La casa del arquitecto; Gustavo Gili, Barcelona.
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