SABER V[END]ER A ARQUITETURA? Uma aproximação à realidade dos concursos

Abstract

Architecture competitions have become a dystopian reality of utopic foundations that are, nowadays, moved by elitist sponsors which are not able to guarantee an elite result; this being true, they create a long, difficult and permanent chase for a perfect final result that is, ultimately, unreachable. Over this topic, the work proposal presented in this Master thesis in Architecture through the Faculty of Architecture of University of Porto has the main goal of constituting a personal thought on the current state of Architecture, having Architecture competitions as a starting point. By considering them an accessible tool to young architects and students who seek for new challenges, the interest they arise nowadays is understandable, for both personal development and autonomous learning and to create awareness about their work and consequent projection as professionals. Because of this, competitions are in the origin of numerous buildings, which leads to the interpretation of Architecture as a growing business. The clear abundance of new requests has generated a crisis of shape, intention and architectonic meaning, since the current perception of what is achievable has evolved so radically that the own limits of Architecture start to be a relevant discussion topic. Therefore, in the absence of a standardized type, a disruptive trend is confirmed, in some extent due to the fact that the competitions themselves are potentially speculative and subjective in the exploration of architectonic concepts. This will, comes out of a curiosity that has been unveiled over the last two years (2017-2019) through the participation in numerous Architecture competitions. The questions that have arisen from this experience are attempted to be answered in this dissertation, seeking to approach more concrete contexts and ideas about this subject.