The Search for Eternity and the Polyphony Prodigy in Távora

Ana Tostões

doi:10.6092/issn.2611-0075/19826

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Ana Tostões Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon

Ana Tostões is an architect, architecture critic and historian. Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico – University of Lisbon, she is Chair of the Architecture Scientific Board and in charge of the Architecture PhD program, as well as leader of the Heritage research line of CiTUA. She has been invited professor at University of Tokyo, Universidad de Navarra and Faculty of Architecture University of Porto.
She has a degree in Architecture (ESBAL, 1982), a Master’s degree in Art History (UNL, 1994) with the thesis Os Verdes Anos na Arquitectura Portuguesa dos Anos 50 (FAUP Ed., 1997), and holds a PhD (IST-UL, 2003) on culture and technology in Modern Architecture (Idade Maior, FAUP Ed., 2015), awarded the X BIAU Prize in 2016.
Her research field is the critical history and theory of Modern Movement architecture. On this field she has published namely Key Papers in Modern Architectural Heritage Conservation (with Liu Kecheng, 2012) and Modern Heritage. Reuse, Renovation, Restoration (Birkhäuser, 2022). She was PI of the research project Exchanging World Visions, which publication Modern Architecture in Africa: Angola and Mozambique (2014) was awarded with the Gulbenkian APH Prize 2014; and of the research project CuCa_RE: Cure and Care_the rehabilitation, from which resulted the publication Curar e Cuidar. A arquitetura da saúde em Portugal (1901-1976). Further she was co-PI of the project The Critical Monumentality of Álvaro Siza. In 2023 she was co-curator of the commemorative exhibition of Fernando Távora’s centenary at Fundação Marques da Silva.
President of Docomomo International and editor-in-chief of the Docomomo Journal between 2010 and 2021. She is president of the Portuguese section of AICA. She was distinguished by the President of the Republic with the Order of Infante Dom Henrique.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2611-0075/19826

Keywords:

Fernando Távora, Portuguese Architecture, Journey to the East, Modernity, Tradition

Abstract

Fernando Távora was a pioneer. As he never tired of saying wisely and kindly, “I am Portuguese architecture!” He not only integrated various references in Portuguese architecture but also deeply understood architecture as culture in a profoundly innovative way.
The intense immersion in modernity without abandoning tradition, the desire to innovate while simultaneously not forgetting the roots, are at the core of the rich and complex personality of the architect Fernando Távora, which is reflected in his actions, his work, his teaching, his life.
From Le Corbusier to the modernists of Orfeu, from traditional Japanese architecture to Portuguese vernacular and erudite architecture, from classical order to Miesian rigor, Távora thinks, feels, and builds a heterodox and inclusive path, a genuine journey in search of truth to “arrive at solutions of eternity”.
As he wrote in 1960, “I am increasingly convinced that only by doing the same thing over and over again, in one lifetime or over generations, is it possible to refine and arrive at everlasting solutions. From the Theséion to the Parthenon there is a whole path of progress, as with Mies’ Lake Shore 1st and 2nd phases”.
In Japan, Távora rediscovers the weight of history and the call to “arrive at solutions of eternity.” The investigation into the Portuguese house (1945-1947), the field surveys conducted within the framework of the “Survey of Portuguese Regional Architecture,” and the study of vernacular and erudite architecture find resonance in Japan.

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References

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The Search for Eternity and the Polyphony Prodigy in Távora

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