Anfiteatro da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra: Fernando Távora

Abstract

The investigation of the Amphitheatre of the Coimbra University Law School is the finding of a creativity process by Fernando Távora, capable of conciliating past and present concepts, city and site, memory, continuity and evolution. In spite of the intervention scale, the relations nature has very deep roots that cover the consideration of the building in the "Alta" context. The "Alta" is a place with its own identity where history is a presence marked in its buildings. In this paper, the historical acknowledgement of the site comes as a basis for the interpretation of the building, because we are talking about qualification and valorisation of the site's intervention architecture in a perspective of continuity with the pre‐existent. The Fernando Távora Project, with José Bernardo Távora cooperation was chosen through public contest to materialize the new Law School Amphitheatre due to its adequacy to the site. There were several constraints for the new programme: the land, the connection and relation with the old building, the "manuelina" arcade, the quote difference when related to the "Pátio das Escolas", ..., but the intentions were many. The new Amphitheatre expresses the will to insert itself in the Coimbra's acropolis, to integrate the building set of the "Paço das Escolas" (today the Law School and Rectory) and to relate with the ancient arcade, considering the old values of architecture in the problem resolution that come up today. This is not a regression attitude; it's a continuity one, allowing the identification of the new when related with the pre‐existent. The Amphitheatre will always be a contemporary building, with its own identity, but capable to dissolve in its composition an intense web of relations with the pre‐existent. It's a constant duality between integration and identity. This necessary relation between work and site is enriched by the enlarged knowledge of architecture, acquired by Fernando Távora during his Professional life and his journeys. In the intervention works of the pre‐existent we can see the constant search to emphasize the values of the ancient, with the new coexisting with pre‐existent. This constant defines the coherence of his work, even though every building is unique and irreplaceable, adequate to the site's reality. The result is a modern and dense work, because it is "the result of a synthesis and cooperation effort, of a constraints integration effort".