Álvaro Siza Vieira - Drawing and Space

José Figueira 150366542 Question #5

Álvaro Siza Vieira Drawing and Space

Introduction “Choosing the work of just one architect/architectural practice that is particularly interesting to you, and with reference to at least 4 carefully selected examples, suggest how their representational work informed their design or spatial ideas.”

This essay will look into how Siza Vieira’s (known internationally as Álvaro Siza) architectural work is at one with his representational work. I will first look into defining him as an artist-architect, identifying throughout reasons leading to his way of working, first on a purely architectural basis, but later on relating it to his representation style, particularly hand sketching.

Following this, a number of examples of works will be shown, providing specific examples of some of these relationships.

Due to both the nature of the question (dealing with another person’s representation), and the way I approached the matter, I have found no need to use own diagrams or drawings. Aditionally, most photos will have been taken by the architectural photographer Fernando Guerra, who Álvaro Siza has had a close relationship with for a long time, and regularly accompanies his projects.

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img.0 (cover) img.1 - note: any image description witholding copyright is credited to Álvaro Siza Vieira

Álvaro Siza Vieira (Matosinhos, 25/06/1933) is, without a doubt, one of the biggest influencers in the European architectural panorama of the past four decades, and perhaps now even a master of contemporary architecture. A multi-faceted persona, he remains ever elusive to categorization, or, as Vittorio Gregotti put it in 1972, in the article that showed for the first time Siza to the world, [perpetually] “out of fashion” [1].

Considered by many the heir to the modern movement, due to Aalto, Wright and Loos having a great influence in his work, as well Le Corbusier’s early career [2], the masters of modernism continued to play an integral part in the unchanging theoretical landscape of the School of Porto [3], ironically slowly leading the Portuguese architectural panorama into the postmodern and the neo avant-garde. And yet, Siza - perhaps due to architecture being second choice early on (sculpture, painting and drawing being intense desires of his [4]), or perhaps due to the arrival of Fernando Távora, who pioneered the “Survey of Portuguese Traditional Architecture” (who along with Aldo van Eyck, participated actively in the CIAM), to the school, and the subsequent part Siza played in his firm - did not indulge on the certainty of any kind of ideology, modernist or not - “I’m incapable of accepting a pre-established language. When I work in a context I must decide what is the appropriate style to use in that context.” [5].

Alternatively, many, particularly after the concept of “Critical Regionalism” was introduced by Kenneth Frampton [6], consider Siza to be the figurehead of a kind of architecture that engages with the traditional and the vernacular, with Frampton bringing attention to Siza and other architects from fringe nations, who, in resisting international styles and adapting themselves to local realities, produce work of an immense sensibility and quality - with some considering this the closest anyone was able to define Siza [7].

And yet, many, most notably Peter Testa [8], contested this idea, defending instead that, at least for Siza, his work came from universal architectures which were then “affected” by the local realities - putting him in the position of “the alternative” - neither a nostalgic or a progressive approach.

1 - Gregotti, V , (1972), Architecture recenti di Álvaro Siza 2 - Moneo, R, (2004) Álvaro Siza, p.200 3 - Alves Costa, A. (2008), Scandalous Artisticity, p.34 4 - Ibid, p. 34-35 5 - ‘Siza Vieira: O Desenho é o Desejo da Inteligência.’ (7 Sep 2003), Correio da Manhã 6 - Moneo, R, (2004) Álvaro Siza, p.200 7 - Figueira, J (2008) Álvaro Siza. Modern Redux. Being Precise, Being Happy, p. 27 8 - Ibid, p. 27 and Testa, P (1996), Álvaro Siza, p. 8

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img.2 [Panovscott, 2009]

img.3

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Right from the start he acknowledges these local realities, the landscapes, materiality, building techniques and uses, the people who will experience his buildings, leading him to, arguably like the portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, develop his work under multiple heteronyms [9], in which the architect doesn’t impose itself on the project (similar, again, to Pessoa, who says he doesn’t act, but instead reveals what already exists, being simply the translator of sensations into words [10], which in the case of the architect means into buildings). For Siza, this is translated into what’s essential: a pure, poetic architecture - poetic in the sense of providing us such a sublime, even ethereal experience, not dissimilar to reading a poem.

Space is, with him, sacred. Like a poem, Siza seems to, as Pessoa writes in “The Book of Desquiet [11]”, consider words (building elements) “tangible bodies”, creating verbal rhythms that eventually become a building (poems). And even though it’s been overdone in architectural criticism, it’s still incredibly useful to speak in literary metaphors in order to understand Siza’s work. After all, poets apply, most importantly, a criteria of aesthetic emotion. “When architecture is their theme, we do not know which to prefer - the architecture itself or the poem” [12] Here, and like Siza, they are interested in the “doing of things” (architecture itself), inherently, in their view, a poetic art.

However, there are some projects where space is the plot in a story written by Álvaro, composed of several elements, characters that he plays with accordingly, becoming, even if still an enjoyable experience, a dialogue in which the architect wishes to surprise us [13], as opposed to something transcending simple comprehension - an example of this contrast between phases of his career is the School of Architecture in Porto, where his poetic purity (the Carlos Ramos Pavilion) lives alongside this new capricious sensibility (the rest of the contemporary school buildings, here almost personified in a postmodern way with facial features, like the characters mentioned before).

9 - in the literary sense 10 - Alves Costa, A. (2008), Scandalous Artisticity, p.34 11 - Pessoa, F (2017), Livro do Desassossego, p. 149 12 - Alves Costa, A. (2008), Scandalous Artisticity, p.33 13 - Moneo, R, (2004) Álvaro Siza, p.201

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Still (and focusing more on his poetic works), he wishes to capture, in his own words: “with the utmost rigour, a single concrete moment of a fleeting image” [14]. Coming back to the role of the architect/poet, he simply translates that brief sensorial quality of a certain point in time, turning those into recognizably minimalist (advent not of a shallow aesthetical obsession, but of an analysis that distances itself from the object, producing a purer analysis by ignoring excessive elements [15]); might be noted as well that Siza relishes the detail, making insignificant elements significant), liberated and yet simple structures, sculptural and full of plasticity, much like his (recurrent and proliferous) drawings of the human figure. It’s not about how the structure or form is made, but instead about the making of the structure, that comes about from mediating historical, social, physical, conflicts. It’s about indulging the fleeting, the moment, acknowledging its merits, leaving, important after the analysis described before, the space to be completed by the person sensing it - the experience open to interpretation offering opportunities for discovery, one might even say this way liberated from the shackles of a unique, confined meaning [16] This brings us to the theme of incompleteness in his work, or as Siza puts it, the “impossibility of completion” [17]. The creative process never ends, it’s unexpected, contingent, fallible, and most importantly, leading to one of many valid solutions. And both due to time constraints, but also a certain typical insatisfaction, he never feels his projects are a closed book.

14 - Siza Vieira, Á (2000), “On My Work” 15 - Now a hallmark of the Porto School due to, profoundly, Siza’s time teaching there 16 - Figueira, J (2008) Álvaro Siza. Modern Redux. Being Precise, Being Happy, p. 28 17 - Siza Vieira, Á (1997), Writings on Architecte, p 204-205

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““Drawing, is language and memory, the way to communicate construction with oneself and others.” [18] Siza is well known for his personal “calligraphy”, called here as such due to the poetic nature of his work. This is reflected on, but also informed by, his drawing style. The plasticity of his early aspirations (becoming a sculptor being a dream of his) are highly visible in his (always) free hand drawings, but more than this, his mentors and masters were, along with what architectural critics regularly call a clear “precociousness” [19] by Siza, the main influences in his drawing style, and subsequently, method of working.

As we’ve seen before, Siza’s resistance in school was, if we ignore talks of prodigy, in great part due to the arrival (at the bequest of the dean Carlos Ramos) at the School of Porto, of several younger architects and artists, among them Fernando Távora [20]. Carlos Ramos found a school in 1952 - still at the time part of the Fine Arts department - “stuck” in the beauxarts style of teaching, and by inviting this second generation of Portuguese modernists, he started the transient academic period in which Siza found himself studying. The early 20th century Bauhausian rationalism Ramos was trying to instill in students was undercut, perhaps intentionally, by the people brought in, some wishing to continue those ideals, whilst others, adept of the ideas of architecture as space (mainly Bruno Zevi’s), insisting on a break with the past [21]. And while he wished for a transition, the academic tradition of basing work on the readings of the “masters” (what I called previously the “unchanging theoretical landscape” of the School) continued - not necessarily bad, but certainly constraining the work of most students, who produced much of the same symmetrical, two dimensional immaterial views.

18 - McCance, D (Dec 2002): ‘An interview with Alvaro Siza’, Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature (35:4), p. 1-16.

19 - Moneo, R (2004), Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects, Barcelona, MIT Press, p. 205 and 20 - Figueira, J et al. (2008) Álvaro Siza - Modern Redux, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag, p. 34 21 - Figueira, J et al. (2008) Álvaro Siza - Modern Redux, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag, p. 34

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Siza, however, and for reasons I might have explained already, ended up far more experimental, and although not as vitriolic as Bruno Zevi (who’s hate of any hint of classicism was well known [22]), an advocate of space as the main tenet of architecture. Távora’s studies on the traditional portuguese architecture influenced Siza’s research, encouraging him to, in the end, produce a body of personal research - thousands of hours of thinking, hand in hand with his academic projects - which, boldly in that context, came to the hand-drawing as the answer to the kind of plasticity he craved. This wasn’t just the whim of an eccentric student - it was a conscious decision of establishing a personal language and body of work.

His drawing style can be divided, in my view, in two parts - the sketch and the drawing. The sketch in this sense is what we perceive as “architectural drawings”, the sketches part of the design process, right away from the preliminary sketches he does when visiting a site, and even before, from the idea he might have of a site, suggesting form from the start in crude lines - “Besides accepting nebulous folly, the hidden beast seeks time to think, for a thousand hours, what comes about in a second, it discovers, transforms, and purifies” [23]. - which immediately kickstarts his intense and incessant search for poetic spaces - aided, of course, by the sketch.

Not to say he’s in any way rejecting alternative ways of representation for the creative process - ceiling models are notably important [24], as well, in the process of specification, typical plans and sections - but that his personal (as I’ve mentioned before, highly adaptive) method inevitably uses this medium as the main catalyser of creativity. Furthermore, their inevitable lack of detailing sustains the idea of distancing yourself from the object, minimizing the presence of the architect, in order to produce, not necessarily better spaces, but poetic spaces.

22 - Zevi, B (1994) The Modern Language of Architecture, New York, Da Capo Press 23- Álvaro Siza, Método, unpublished 24 - known within the context of a visit to his office in Porto

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img.4, Serralves Museum sketches

img.5 Alves dos Santos House sketches

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However, not all in Siza is made of the built environment. When possible, he likes to design and think in cafés - the portuguese kind, where the private building becomes completely part of the public realm, and the public realm within an opportunity to be in private - that he describes as “one of the few places - here in Porto - where you can remain anonymous and concentrate” [25], whilst remaining connected to a multiplicity of peoples.

This is especially important, because it’s that awareness of the social body that allows him to create his works of architecture, and contributes to (and is contributed by) his attentiveness of mankind.

In a quick comparison with other relevant architects in search engines, we immediately become aware of the importance of the human figure for Siza. Encompassing (multiple) self-portraits and portraits, drawings of contextless human figure but also recurringly of horses, I differentiate these from the previous part because, unlike the former, they’re not workin-progress, they’re a carefully constructed, and finalized, image. Despite their similar aesthetic qualities, the drawings are almost like additions to the artistic (and here I’m including his architectural works as well) opus he’s been creating since his academic studies, whilst the sketches are part of a design process, used as a way of explaining space, mostly to himself, but also to others (he’s known for regularly and compulsively sketch his ideas out).. And so, whilst the sketches are purely practical, these drawings have, inherently, something poetic about them, placing them in the same category as a (finished) structure.

25 - Siza Vieira, Á (1997), Writings on Architecte, p 204-205

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img.6

img.7 to 10 - in red, highlighted the non-architectural drawings of 4 architects - in order Siza Vieira, Frank Gehry, Alvar Aalto, James Stirling, in a simple Google search “*name* drawings�

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(from left to right) img.11 to 15

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His drawings of the (contextless) human figure show a great humanism, with special focus on the relationship between man and woman, but also of sexuality and sex itself, a “family” theme that shows incredible tenderness and nostalgia, but also exposes a certain bitterness, and with his expression in his self-portraits betrays a certain solitude (the death of his wife Maria Antónia Siza in 1973 marking a moment of intense heartbreak of the architect, provoking in him a shift in these drawings, as he says “The oldest [drawings] are as if they were by someone else” [26]). Accompanying these, horses occupy a lasting place in Siza’s imaginary, here the form and movement more emphasized than before. All of them show great energy and dynamism, and seem to want to develop beyond the dimensions of the sheet or format, potentially meeting each other, all part of a single, encompassing scene [27]. Along his structural work, despite being technically finished, they’re ready for the viewer to complete, and are an attempt (successful I would say) of capturing a certain sensory moment.

But because Siza’s work and method is so (by design) open to interpretation, some people might counter the sketch/drawing separation I propose here, as one could claim that his “drawings” are like a research exercise, inherent to his design work in the sense that they are a product of his analysis of the social body, and so should be considered sketches. But (un)fortunately, there are no certainties in his work, and so, neither me or any critic can offer definite answers, only opinions modelled by a personal experience of Siza’s work [28].

26 - Santos, L. (2011). Siza Vieira - “Os desenhos antigos é como se fossem de outra pessoa”. DN 27 - ‘Siza Vieira: O Desenho é o Desejo da Inteligência.’ (7 Sep 2003), Correio da Manhã 28 - The only way I feel confident in giving my personal opinion here is that I have physically experienced his work, both structural and representational - otherwise, I wouldn’t feel capable of doing such personal assessments.

img. 16

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(from top to bottom) img.17 and 18

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img. 19

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The reason hand drawing (both of the types) has almost exclusively been analysed in this essay is because it’s what differentiates him, in non-constructional areas, from others. When thinking of examples then, I have to reiterate that, whilst the versatility of the hand drawing/sketch lends itself to it being used as a basis for every project, he does indeed use other methods of representation in the creative process - this is visible, for example, on the Piscina das Marés (Swimming Pools of the Sea; Leça Swimming Pool), one of Siza’s first projects in 1961. It’s a multi-platformed project, of a precociously minimal form, that subjugates itself to the environment surrounding it. Here, the plan serves above all as a organizer of the corridors, ramps, walls and pools, on a descending topography onto the sea, integrated in the rocks, the entire project almost hidden away from the seaside avenue its located in. Siza’s approach in his sketches seems to hint at a preference for the overall relationship with the rocky seaside and the avenue, topography being the guiding element of the design. The rocks and sand are only hinted at, his gesture incapable of producing such detail at that scale. Not that he would want it, as we can see from the photos - the ever changing tide and shore being an integral part of of the site and project: “Year after year, with the tides, the sea carries away that which is not essential.” he adds [29]. But the several planes - the walls, concrete floors, paths - are already in place, even if not yet defined - for that, he uses the carefully measured (if simple) plan, working around the fixed topographies (rocks, the avenue) and the pre-existing natural paths to the sand [30].

29 - Fleck, B (1992), Alvaro Siza, p. 25 30 - Ibid, p. 25

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(from top to bottom) image 20 to 24(20 and 21 [Fernando Guerra - Ăšltimas Reportagens])

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Siza, until the late 70s, kept himself to his home country, working in realities he was deeply accustomed to. In one of his first projects abroad, in the Schlesisches Tor area in Berlin, we come across one of his least successful schemes (now nicknamed “Bonjour Tristesse”). Part of a competition, it started well, as the first one abroad Siza managed to win [31]. However, it quickly turned sour. Mediating conflicts and turning them into something good is essential for Siza’s process, but here, due to distance (cultural as well physical), he wasn’t shown those (mostly of financial character) from the start, and it took a toll on the project [32]. His sketches, for example, show a form-finding exercise, above all trying to engage the corner, with different sized windows that would align with the next door buildings, which were undercut by the company’s insistence, mid project, that more floors should be placed in the same building height, and that the number of apartments per floor should be increased to 7 from the planned 4 - leading to the current completely monotonic facade and windows. In the end, this is a project harmed, not necessarily by a lack of expertise of the architect or the contractor or the client, but by miscommunication between all parts.

We don’t have to go further in showing this disconnect than comparing the plans Siza initially gave with the revised ones demanded by the client, with unbelievable visual clutter on the latter - “so much information that it no longer informs” Siza said at the time [33].

31 - Ibid, p. 79 32 - Ibid, p. 80 33 - Ibid, p. 80

img. 25

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(from top to bottom) image 26 and 27 [Wikipedia Commons, 2005]

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While his sketching has been unchanging, his secondary mediums have progressed with technology. The late nineties allowed Siza to explore the possibilities of digital media, such as in the Portugal Pavilion for the Hannover Expo (now moved to Coimbra). A contextless work due to the nature of a temporary fair, it was explored through (predictably) the hand drawn sketch, but one particular element was developed further through digital means. The translucent undulating roof/ceiling (visible particularly in the main exhibition space, but also at the edges of the building) reveals a plasticity that, whilst not impossible to express through drawing, it uses 3D modelling to see it realized to an accurate degree [34]. But here the 3D modelling (likely made by partners at his firm with his insight) is then printed off, and drawn on by Siza for further exploration, reflective of his idea of architecture as experimentation.

img. 28 [JoĂŁo Pereira de Sousa, 2009]

34 - necessary for a building that would be dismantled and moved halfway across a continent

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(from top to bottom) img. 29 and 30

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(from top to bottom)img.31 to 34, Anyang Pavillion (33 [Unknown]; 34 [Fernando Guerra])

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With the Anyang Pavilion (2006) in South Korea, he and his firm already integrate plans, models and 3D under the guidance of drawings [35]. But there’s something setting this, and both the Mimesis Museum (2009, Korea) and the Building on the Water (2014, China), apart. They all seem to embody a much more obvious play of curves, physically embodying his human figure “drawings” (as opposed to sketches). Interestingly, this isn’t the first time we can witness a direct influence from his drawings in his works - as mentioned before, the School of Porto (1992, Porto) personification of the facades being an example of this appropriation - although in most of the other cases - thinking particularly of the Adega Mayor (2006, Campo Maior) and the São Bento Metro Station (2005, Porto) - it is used as a (usually tiled) mural, with the drawings directly printed on them.

35 - Figueira, J et al. (2008) Álvaro Siza - Modern Redux, p. 178

(from top to bottom)img.35 to 37 Mimesis Museum (36 [Fernando Guerra])

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(from top to bottom) img. 38 (Building on the Water [Fernando Guerra]) and 39

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(from top to bottom) img. 40 (Adega Mayor [Fernando Guerra] in white highlighted the location of the mural) and 41 (SĂŁo Bento Metro [Fernando Guerra[)

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img. 42

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Conclusion “You have to feel what you are doing, and not be so rational that you just solve the problems, because emotion is very important. Without it, something is missing,” - Álvaro Siza Vieira To conclude, I believe that the quote above, from an interview in 2014 with Amy Frearson, sums up infinitely better what Siza’s work and drawings are about. It includes within it his poetic intent, contigency, morals, criativity, sensibility to people, site and material, and relevant to us architecture students, the exasperation of thinking that there is always something more we can do in a project. In his drawings he pours his soul, and that is clearly reflected in the spaces borne of it.

I believe that, beyond accomplishing what I set out to write in this essay, I managed to inspire myself to do better. More than a research project, this quickly became a purpose-finding journey, with Siza’s everything a perfect catalyst of that - for me, and for others. (3270 Words)

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Bibliography Costa, A - ‘Scandalous Artisticity’, in Figueira, J et al. (2008) Álvaro Siza Modern Redux, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag Figueira, J - ‘Álvaro Siza. Modern Redux. Being Precise, Being Happy’, in Figueira, J et al. (2008) Álvaro Siza - Modern Redux, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz Verlag Fleck, B (1992), Alvaro Siza, Basel, Birkhäuser Verlag AG Frampton, K (1983), Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance Frearson, A. (2014). Álvaro Siza interview: “Emotion is very important” in architecture. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen. com/2014/12/19/alvaro-siza-interview-porto-serralves-museum/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2017].

Gregotti, V (2017) Essay: Alvaro Siza, The Pritzker Architecture Prize. [online] Available at: http://www.pritzkerprize.com/1992/essay [Accessed 5 Feb. 2017] Gregotti, V (9 Sep 1972) ‘Architecture recenti di Álvaro Siza’, Controzpazio McCance, D (Dec 2002): ‘An interview with Alvaro Siza’, Mosaic: a journal for the interdisciplinary study of literature (35:4) Moneo, R (2004), Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies in the Work of Eight Contemporary Architects, Barcelona, MIT Press Mota, N. (2011). Between Populism and Dogma: Álvaro Siza’s Third Way. FOOTPRINT, [online] pp.35-58. Available at: http://footprint.tudelft.nl/ index.php/footprint/article/view/731/909 [Accessed 5 Feb. 2017].

Pessoa, F (2017), Livro do Desassossego, 7th Edition, Lisboa, Assírio & Alvim Siza Vieira, Á (2000), “On My Work”, in Álvaro Siza: Complete Works, London, Phaidon ‘Os desenhos de Siza para as palavras de Bastide’ [Gallery]. (2013). Público, [online] Available at: http://www.publico.pt/multimedia/fotogaleria/os-

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desenhos-de-siza-para-as-palavras-de-bastide-325880#/15 29 Jan. 2017]

[Accessed

Santos, J. P (1993), Alvaro Siza: Works & Projects, 2nd Edition, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili S.A Santos, L. (2011). Siza Vieira - “Os desenhos antigos é como se fossem de outra pessoa”. [online] DN. Available at: http://www.dn.pt/artes/ arquitectura/interior/os-desenhos-antigos-e-como-se-fossem-deoutra-pessoa-1860987.html [Accessed 29 j. 2017].

Sánches Vidiella, A (2010) Álvaro Siza - Notes on a Sensitive Architecture, Barcelona, Loft Santos Patrão, D (2013), O DESENHAR DE UM MÉTODO: evolução e progresso no modo de projectar, Universidade Católica Siza Vieira, Á (2016), Álvaro Siza and Maria Antónia Siza [Display]. Exhibited at the Oris House of Architecture, Zagreb 11th of June 2016 to 31st of August 2016 Siza Vieira, Á (2016), Matéria-Prima: Um Olhar Sobre o Arquivo de Álvaro Siza [Display]. Exhibited at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto 16th of June 2016 to 25th of September 2016 Siza Vieira, Á, Método, unpublished Siza Vieira, Á (1997), Writings on Architecte, ed.Antonio Angelillo, Milan, Skira ‘Siza Vieira: O Dessenho é o Desejo da Inteligencia.’ (7 Sep 2003), Correio da Manhã, Cofina [online] Available at: http://www.cmjornal.pt/mais-cm/ domingo/detalhe/siza-vieira-o-desenho-e-o-desejo-da-inteligencia [Accessed 20 Jan. 2017].

Testa, P (1996), Álvaro Siza, Basel, Birkhäuser Verlag AG Zevi, B (1994) The Modern Language of Architecture, New York, Da Capo Press

img. 43 and 44 (back cover)

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