A Assembleia de Guimarães. (Re)Contextualização de uma obra de Fernando Távora

Abstract

The study of the Assembleia de Guimarães building constitutes the starting point of this Dissertation. This work, located in the east area of the city of Guimarães, was designed and built between 1969 and 1972 by architect Fernando Távora. In addition to the study of the building itself, it is also important to understand the place where it is located, which results from successive expansion plans of the city throughout the 20th century, so the analysis of the building is integrated into an analysis of the urban evolution. It is also essential to contextualize the Assembleia project in the life and work of Fernando Távora, especially in the sixties: it is important to understand how his trip to the USA and Japan in 1960 and, above all, the Royaumont meeting in 1962, influenced his approach to architecture throughout this decade. In this sense, and due to the 'rationalism crisis' that Távora admittedly goes through during this period, the international debate and the organicist influence that his work incorporates are studied, establishing a parallelism between Assembleia de Guimarães and Alvar Aalto's work. Finally, we reflect on the phase of Távora's life in which the Assembleia de Guimarães project occurs, carrying out a reinterpretation of the evolution of his Work. We end with a necessary recontextualization of the building, taking into account the transformations of the urban environment and changes in Assembleia de Guimarães over the last fifty years, mirrored in the way it lives today.