Casa das Artes - cultural center

S.E.C. Casa das Artes

Casa das Artes - cultural center
Spolupráce:João Carreira, Luísa Penha
Address: Rua António Cardoso 175, Oporto, Portugal
Investor:Secretaria de Estado da Cultura
Project:1981-85
Completion:1988-91


"The castle was big, though, wasn't it? And the angel was big, very big, even when right next to you?".
Rilke, Duíno Elegies

Work was not allowed to interfere with the garden. Omitting was more important than proposing, filing and shaving was more important than designing, and simplicity more important than composition.
The building is structured primarily by a concrete wall, and by another stone wall, adjusted and somewhat out of phase at the point of the doorway. A flat copper-plated roof rests on these walls.
Work would begin two meters from the line of trees that we did not want to affect.
There would be three sculptures.
Regardless of their quality, we were interested in their location, and attitude in the place that they, too, would participate in shaping and making. They are all essential pieces in the definition and codification of the three sectors: the Auditorium, the Exhibition Hall and the Cinema.
The first sculpture will rest on the wall that comes from outside the garden and, upon entering into the auditorium, makes the interior stage or theatre.
The second sculpture will be in the entrance to the exhibition hall, serving as the emblematic doorway to the Center as well as capping off the elevation.
The third will have the cinema as its backdrop, placed near the wall that separates the Cultural Center from the nine-story high tower..."The castle was big, though wasn't it? And the angel was big, very big, even when right next to you?"
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