Fernando Távora e a organização do espaço público

Abstract

Fernando Luis Cardoso Menezes de Tavares e Távora, born in Oporto on 25th August 1923 and died on 3rd September 2005, hold the Architecture degree in the High School of Arts of Oporto (Escola superior de Belas Artes do Porto). "His work has never lost the fidelity of the called Modern Movement, grew up and developed on it as its Author".1 Távora will be recognized modern forever. He pledged in improving his Country, introduced, in the 50's, an innovated reflexion about the Portuguese Architecture and its problems at the moment. He took part on the Inquiry to the Portuguese Popular Architecture in 1955, whose work could demonstrate that the variety of the National production didn't come from one single type but from a lot of them. "For Távora everything was different:" the Landscape, the earth - the granite and marble. Different constructions in volume, shape, delicacy."2 He was a cultured man, born in a cultured family. His mother's family is from North and his father's one is from the Center of Portugal. His mother was the owner of many ancient houses near by Guimarães, that were a guarantee of working in this architectural field and so his passion for Guimarães appeared. The social headquarters of Guimarães Assembly, Santa Marinha da Costa Inn, the design of the General Plan Urbanisation, the accuracy of Rua Nova House, the striking Squares of Cónego José Maria Gomes, S. Tiago, João Franco e Condessa do Juncal, the Briteiros House and the design of Public Security Police Station are examples of reference works and projects, that are remarkable in Guimarães. During six years, he was always present at Technical Local Office (GTL) where he gave assistance, reinterpreting and afterwards doing the integration without losing its importance as a reference of a global philosophy of intervention. He looked carefully at the City, at the original Landscape and used it as a cultural note to integrate into the rehabilitation projects. Certainly, he was the pioneer in the National Architectural Heritage, and started putting the Classicism in a second position, giving to the Modern Movement more importance and innovation. The importance that each place took in my architectural background and the way that I started looking at the way that the inhabitants of Guimarães live and use theses spaces, grew stronger my interest and admiration for him. So, my actual goal is going to discover, know, analyze, observe and read the works and the history of each of them to be able to convey and show his exemplar methodology of intervention in the public space. During a first stage the field and experimental work are developed, facing directly the reality of the chosen object to study. On a second stage, and at the same time will be done the analysis of the drawings and of the built architecture as long as interviews to Municipal Technicians, Inhabitants, other architects and author's family. In this work, interviews and bibliographic research will be a methodology of getting knowledge that in this case are a fundamental way to be of low divulgation, and above all late publication to give him real value. The bibliographic research will be present always during the development of the work in order to formulate correctly the concepts for beyond the particular presence of the Architect and of Guimarães, in the history of Architecture and in the Cities.