ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA, ARCHITECT

ON AIRES MATEUS 2004

Excavating air

EXCAVATING AIR
I quoted a Nazarene proverb when I first wrote about the architecture of the Aires Mateus brothers: To make a
house, you grab a handful of air and you hold it together with a few walls. That is nothing more and nothing less
than what these architects do in all their works: hold the air together.
Their latest work in construction, the very brilliant Park Hyatt in Dublin, is no more and no less than a ramp to fill
each and every one of its rooms with air and with the air, light. Like a puzzle of light and shade. Or better said,
like a solid that has been excavated piece by piece, hole by hole.
Because that is the line our architects have followed in their latest projects. It would seem as though they always
excavated a solid seeking interstices to inject light in a mysterious way.
If all the air and light inundated the spaces of their marvelous house in Alenquer, in their latest works, it seems as
if they wanted to compress it, to tense the light even more with darkness, with shadow.
The latest houses are all a collection of boxes full of boxes, as if they were a set of Russian matriuskas (wooden
dolls within dolls). Although the comparison is valid rhetorically, it doesnt work here because the fundamental
thing about the spatial operations the Aires Mateus brothers create is precisely the air between the contained
boxes and the containing box. In the same spirit as that with which Bernini placed the baldachin of San Pedro in
order to resolve that excessively large and vague space, so that it remained gloriously tensed.
The house in Alvalade, a box full of little boxes, of full and empty spaces; the house in Alentejo, simpler; or the
house in Setbal, where the play becomes more sophisticated, hanging the pieces from high in an almost
sculptural dance. And then, the houses of Sesimbra, of Arrabida and of Alcacer, like a waterfall of Bachs
Goldberg Variations on a theme.
Two larger projects, the Sines Cultural Center and the headquarters of the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon also
pose the issue of the boxes, this time in a major tone. In both, we find the precision and suggestiveness of
concatenated spaces.
Still very young, Manuel 40 and Francisco 39, in full maturity, are ready to take on the world. Their enthusiasm
when they showed me the box in Alenquer was parallel to that which imbues their architecture with a will to stay.
I was a member of the jury for the Luigi Cosenza European award in its first year in a general nature after the
disappearance of the Palladio award. The decision was unanimous when we awarded the University Residence
in Lisbon, designed by the Aires Mateus brothers.
There is a high degree of abstraction in all of their architecture, as if they didnt need details. Then, seen in
person, these works are full of silent details that only strengthen the principal operation.
They always define the limits very well. It is a precise architecture. It is not that of a spiders web, more
mysterious and cautious, as Siza imagined. These Portuguese architects are younger, more daring, and more
radical. They move in another area of that wide sea of good contemporary Portuguese architecture, marking their
own territory.
They are clearer. They do not take place as reference in order to adapt to it; rather they take it as an ingredient of
this new product (as they say, a material of the project).

www.campobaeza.com

1-4

ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA, ARCHITECT

ON AIRES MATEUS 2004
Excavating air

In Joo Belo Rodeias magnificent analytical text about them, he point out rightly: The most interesting thing
about their work is that the object of experimentation and what they seek are clearly disciplinary, thus challenging
the current of national normality and international effervescence. I believe the position is so clear, so well
described by Belo Rodeia that we could almost apply it to all of the worthy young architects that are presented in
this publication.
It is same international effervescence and national normality from which Mies and Le Corbusier escaped so
effectively in their time. A Mies who made a small pavilion that is all that has remained of that Universal
Exposition in Barcelona almost a century ago, as opposed to all the tremendous pavilions of the effervescent
internationalism of that period. Or the small pavilion of LEspirit Nouveau by Le Corbusier for the Art Decorativ
Exposition in Paris in 1925 where something simple took place.
Our young Portuguese architects do not take on, again in Belo Rodeias words, the superfluous robes of the
contemporary. They are of our time and are imbued in our time, but they are not slaves to fashion. They try and
they succeed in holding time, in remaining, and with them, in making their architecture remain.

www.campobaeza.com

2-4

ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA, ARCHITECT

ON AIRES MATEUS 2004
Excavating air

EXCAVANDO EL AIRE
Cit un proverbio nazar cuando por primera vez escrib sobre la arquitectura de los hermanos Aires Mateus:
"Para hacer una casa se coge un puado de aire y se sujeta con unas paredes". Pues es, nada ms y nada
menos que eso, sujetar el aire, lo que hacen estos arquitectos en todas sus obras.
Su ltima obra en construccin, muy brillante, el hotel Park Hyatt en Dubln, no es nada ms y nada menos que
una rampa para llenar el aire, y con el aire de luz, todas y cada una de sus habitaciones. Como un puzzle de luz
y de sombra. O mejor dicho, como un slido que se excava trozo a trozo, hueco a hueco.
Porque sa es la lnea en que en los ltimos proyectos se encuentran nuestros arquitectos. Pareciera que
excavaran siempre un slido capaz buscando intersticios para meter la luz de una manera misteriosa.
Si en la maravillosa casa en Alenquer todo el aire y la luz inundaban sus espacios, en las ltimas obras parece
que quisieran comprimirlo, como tensando an ms la luz con la oscuridad, con la sombra.
Las ltimas casas son todas una coleccin de cajas llenas de cajas. Como si de un juego de matriuskas rusas se
tratara. Y aunque la figura retricamente es vlida, no lo es aqu por cuanto lo fundamental en las operaciones
espaciales de los Aires Mateus es precisamente el aire "entre" las cajas contenidas y la caja continente. Con el
mismo espritu con el que Bernini coloc el baldaquino de San Pedro para resolver aquel espacio demasiado
grande y desvado. Que as qued gloriosamente tensado.
La casa en Alvalade, caja repleta de cajitas, de llenos y vacos; la casa en Alentejo, ms sencilla; o la casa en
Setbal, donde el juego se sofistica colgando las piezas en alto en una danza cuasi escultrica. Y luego las
casas de Sesimbra, la de Arrabida y la de Alcacer, como una catarata de variaciones bachianas a lo Goldberg
sobre un mismo tema.
Dos proyectos mayores, el Centro Cultural de Sines y la sede de la Orquesta Metropolitana de Lisboa, plantean,
esta vez con tono mayor, el tema de las cajas. En los dos, la precisin y la sugerencia de los espacios
concatenados.
Todava muy jvenes, Manuel 40 y Francisco 39, estn, en plena sazn, dispuestos a comerse el mundo. Su
entusiasmo cuando me enseaban la caja de Alenquer corra parejo con el que insuflaban a su arquitectura con
voluntad de permanencia.
Estuve en el jurado del premio europeo Luigi Cosenza en su primera convocatoria con carcter general tras la
desaparicin del Palladio. La opinin fue unnime cuando premiamos la Residencia Universitaria en Lisboa de
los Aires Mateus.
Hay un grado grande de abstraccin en todas sus arquitecturas. Como si no hicieran falta los detalles. Luego en
directo estn repletas de detalles "silenciosos" que no hacen ms que potenciar la operacin principal.
Siempre definen muy bien los lmites. Es una arquitectura precisa. No es la de la tela de araa que preconizaba
Siza, ms misteriosa, ms cauta. Estos portugueses son como ms jvenes, ms arriesgados, ms radicales. Se
mueven en otra zona de ese mar amplio de la buena arquitectura portuguesa contempornea, marcando su
propio territorio.

www.campobaeza.com

3-4

ALBERTO CAMPO BAEZA, ARCHITECT

ON AIRES MATEUS 2004
Excavating air

Ellos son ms ntidos. No toman el lugar como referencia para adaptarse a l, sino como un ingrediente
(material del proyecto, dicen ellos) para ese nuevo producto.
En un magnfico texto analtico que Joo Belo Rodeia escribe sobre ellos, apunta con certeza: "Lo ms
interesante de su obra es que el objeto de experimentacin y lo que ambicionan, son claramente disciplinarios en
el desafo a la corriente de normalidad nacional y de efervescencia internacional". Creo que es tan clara la
posicin, tan bien descrita por Belo Rodeia que casi podramos aplicrsela a todos los arquitectos jvenes
valiosos que se asoman en esta publicacin.
Aquella misma efervescencia internacional y normalidad nacional de la que tan bien escaparon Mies y Le
Corbusier en su momento. Un Mies que hace un pequeo pabelln que es lo nico que ha quedado de aquella
Exposicin Universal de Barcelona de hace casi un siglo, frente a tantos pabellones tremendos de los
"efervescentes" de entonces. O el pequeo pabelln de "L 'Esprit Nouveau" de Le Corbusier para la Exposicin
"Art Decorativ" de Pars de 1925 donde ocurra algo parecido.
No adoptan nuestros jvenes arquitectos portugueses, otra vez con palabras de Belo Rodeia, "superfluos
ropajes de contemporaneidad". Son, se empapan, de nuestro tiempo pero no se dejan arrastrar por las modas.
Intentan y lo consiguen, retener el tiempo, permanecer. y con ellos, hacer que su arquitectura permanezca.

www.campobaeza.com

4-4