IJUP08 - Universidade do Porto

The silence and the sky: seclusion and architecture. Four
courtyard-houses
A. Silva Fernandes 1 , C. Machado 2
1 Lic. Architecture, MSc Student, Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal.
2 Assistant Professor, PhD., Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal.
The work being reported, based on the essay “The silence and the sky”[1], aimed to
explore silence, in the context of architecture, as a void that completes the meaning of
words and as space for thought and meditation. The courtyard in the house, as a medium
for expressing the ability to establish a space for introspection and a connection between
sky and earth, in a representation of the sacred and aspiration to perfection that is present
throughout history, is used as a case-study.
Through four themes – light, limit, matter and memory – the work focuses on the courtyard
in cultural and historical references, using courtyards designed by Louis Kahn, Mies van
der Rohe, Luís Barragán and Álvaro Siza, but mentioning many others, as a pretext for
discussing architecture and poetry of space.
The courtyard establishes a physical and symbolic unification of sky and earth. It is, at the
same time, a recurrent and a versatile element, allowing adaptation to different conditions
and generations, in different cultures and geographical locations. Evolving from an
intuitive organization, calls upon primitive instincts, as the myth involved in the
delimitation of the territory: creates a space for protection, introversion, of the imaginary.
“It is so old that sensations inherited from man’s cave-dwelling days have been symbolized
in it. It symbolizes femininity in the house and home; it is a spatial symbol of
inwardness.”[2]
As Heidegger explains, and as it is defended in the essay, poetry is connected with the
human action of domination over the territory, of dwelling: “poetry opens the dwelling life
of man”[3]. In a way, poetry of space is a kind of sacralization: even though not really
connected with religion, gains a special meaning, even in a profane world, through
memory or dream, forming something sacred, not necessarily divine, but human and
personal. “Man, as man, has always measured himself with and against something
heavenly.”[4] It is the acknowledgment of the unexplainable and the immeasurable, and the
need for protection and seclusion, that is found in human nature, and thought to be
reflected in architecture, namely in the courtyard.
References:
[1] Fernandes, Ana Silva (2007), O silêncio e o céu. Reclusão e Arquitectura. Quatro Casas-Pátio,
Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto. This essay was written for the Award of the Degree in
Architecture, University of Porto, and was supervised by the second author.
[2] Blaser, W. (1985), Atrium – Lichthöfe Seit Fünf Jahrtausend – Five Thousand Years of Open
Courtyards, Wepf & Co. AG, Verlag, Basel, p. 7.
[3] Heidegger, M. (1971), Poetry, Language, Thought, Harper & Row, New York, Introduction,
p.xii.
[4] Heidegger, M. (1971), Poetry, Language, Thought, Harper & Row, New York, p.221.
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