IJUP08 - Universidade do Porto

CONTACT POINTS_BETWEEN SWISS AND PORTUGUESE
ARCHITECTURE
Bruno Miguel Varejão Cardoso
Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, Portugal.
The current society is in constant and fast transformation. With the easy and fast
displacement of people and information a new confluence becomes possible and thus
confrontation between different cultures. The borders of the knowledge extend to a global
level, subverting the concepts of time and space, creating bonds of stronger union and
proximity between the different world-wide cultures, in a process of constant definition of
the European identity, based in a strong interaction between the globalization and the
various local trends.
This reaction marks deeply the practical of the new generations of young Portuguese
architects. They developed their formation with values based on a culture of openness to
Europe, in the appearance of a new society of consumption and information, in a search for
new concepts that reflects a disciplinary osmosis of architecture with other artistic
movements and trends, in conciliation with the important legacy of the 50’s generation,
opening space for reflection and debate on the past and present of the Portuguese
architecture. This is reflected in a quality production with new vectors of action and
growth, with a new dynamism and concept, and it marks a time of change in the
architectural scene.
The Swiss architecture reveals conceptual and minimal issues, with a constructive rigour
and a formal simplicity, and modern concepts re-interpreted. It became a great reference
for young Portuguese architects, for revealing a reconciliatory attitude between traditional
concepts and broad cultural transformations of contemporary society, maintaining a simple
language and an honest construction, readily identifiable with the Portuguese tradition.
While trying to flee from a predominantly complacent and uncritical culture, the young
architects who were deploying in the Portuguese architectural scene, kept the search for an
adequate response to a local context stopped in time, faced with new demands of a
confluence for a new global and more dynamic context.
These new generations demonstrate perseverance, willingness and dedication, with a
strong ability to explore the risk, using the marginal contexts to avoid stagnation and
conformism, looking to assert themselves with an attitude between resistance and
commitment. This new awareness includes the recognition of our identity, traces in
evolution, a change in the traditional approaches, influences, and references, that will
transform the context of the Portuguese architecture and allow a conscious and positive
metamorphosis of our cultural specificity in loss, and a slow transformation of the
discourse in the search for our identity as Portuguese, as Europeans.
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