Raízes e caminhos: Marques da Silva e a arquitectura do século XX - Roots and paths: Marques da Silva and 20th century architecture

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 2011

Authors

Rui Jorge Garcia Ramos (Author) FAUP

Book

Title: Leituras de Marques da Silva. Reexaminar a modernidade no início do século XXI: arquitectura, cidade, historia, sociedade, ciência, cultura

Pages: 15-27

ISBN: 979-972-99852-7

Publisher: Fundação Instituto Arquitecto José Marques da Silva

Scientific classification

FOS: Humanities > Arts

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Architecture ; Humanities > Arts

Other information

Resumo (PT): A arquitetura na passagem do século XIX para o século XX, difundida nas Américas e na Europa, de Nova Iorque a Santiago do Chile, de Paris a Istambul, é marcada pelo internacionalismo e vontade de progresso. No final do século XIX Marques da Silva (1869-1947) concluía, em Paris, a formação de arquiteto na École Nationale et Spéciale des Beaux-Arts, onde se distingue a frequência do atelier Vítor Laloux (1850-1937). Ao ensino canónico beauxartiano juntava-se o contacto com uma prática projetual inovadora que, simultaneamente, revia as metodologias de conceção; incorporava novas técnicas perante as exigências construtivas de espaços com grande dimensão; detalhava programas funcionais para o uso massificado; e, sobretudo, partilhava com os engenheiros uma nova perspetiva multidisciplinar do projeto arquitetónico. Paris, cidade cosmopolita e referência da modernidade, afirmava-se como centro mundial desta nova arquitetura.... No regresso da sua estadia em Paris, em 1896, desde logo se dedica a projetos significativos como a Estação de São Bento (1896-1911), trabalhando de motu próprio até 1899; ou, o bairro operário de "O Comércio do Porto" (1899) onde enfrenta o grave problema do alojamento popular na cidade, tema central da arquitetura do século XX. A proposta para a Estação de São Bento demonstra bem a convicção presente no início da sua atividade como arquiteto. Por um lado, este projeto traduz os desafios técnicos colocados pela circulação dos comboios, do grande número de passageiros transportados e das telecomunicações onde, esquisso após esquisso, a negociação entre monumentalidade e funcionalidade acaba por relegar para segundo plano, a ideia inicial, da fachada principal com uma estrutura metálica e vidro. Por outro lado, o desenrolar do projeto mostra a convicção no progresso, bem traduzido na indispensabilidade desta obra que leva à inevitável conclusão da demolição do Convento de São Bento de Avé Maria e da sua Igreja, para a requalificação do centro comercial de acordo com os novos tempos. Estava lançada a pedra para outra imagem do Porto que leva, atualmente, à leitura de outro Marques da Silva, implicando repensar a história e a modernidade.

Abstract (EN): Roots and paths: Marques da Silva and 20th century architecture. (p.28-39) At the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the architecture that spread across North and South America and Europe, from New York to Santiago to Chile, and from Paris to Istanbul, was marked by the desire for progress. At the end of the 19th century, Marques da Silva (1869-1947) completed his training as an architect at the École Nationale et Spéciale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he not only frequented the studio of Victor Laloux (1850- 1937) but also showed great admiration for Ferdinand Dutert (1845-1906), even to the point of claiming him to be his teacher, as was to be made more explicit later on. These two Frenchmen were both architects engaged in intense professional activity in a city that was alive with all manner of innovative large-scale projects, and Marques da Silva was to maintain close ties of loyalty with them throughout his life. In this way, his education in the canons of the Beaux Arts was augmented by a unique design-based experience that not only caused architects to revise the methodologies that they used for the conception and organisation of their production but also led them to incorporate new techniques for dealing with the construction requirements of large-scale spaces. At the same time, architects were equipped with detailed functional programmes for mass use and, above all, were able to share with the engineers a new multidisciplinary perspective of the architectural design. On his return from his stay in Paris in 1896, he immediately dedicated himself to significant projects, such as the São Bento railway station (1896-1911), designed to give greater dignity to the rail service, with the arrival of the first train in the centre of Porto taking place that same year, or the building of the workers’ housing estate of “O Comércio do Porto” (1899), where he was faced with the serious problem of providing low-cost housing in the city, which was to become the central theme of 20th- century architecture. The proposal that he presented for the São Bento station clearly demonstrates the firm conviction that he had at the beginning of his activity as an architect. On the one hand, this project included the technical challenges presented by the circulation of trains, the large number of passengers that they carried, and the problem of telecommunications. In sketch after sketch, the balance that he had to negotiate between monumentality and functionality ended up relegating to a secondary position the presence in the main façade of the metal structure designed to support the large glassed area surrounding the platforms. On the other hand, the development of the project displayed his firm belief in progress, clearly expressed in the indispensable nature of this work, which led to the inevitable completion of the demolition of the Convento de São Bento de Avé Maria and its church, to redesign the city centre in keeping with the new times.

Language: Portuguese

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

Notes: Roots and paths: Marques da Silva and 20th century architecture. p.28-39