Duas casas: para o Largo do Bonjardim

Abstract

This dissertation seeks, through the design of Two Houses in Rua do Bonjardim, to think on the contradiction, multiplicity and singularity in architecture. Largo do Dr Tito Fontes is the starting point for the design of a project that incorporates the historical perspective of the city and the continuity of the Porto´s identity. The project, with this premise, reflects on the duality, the spatial experience, the transition and the dynamics of confrontation between, and within its two houses. The coherence and interconnection of the design decisions with the strong basic themes of the dissertation promote a union of design, implantation, volumetry and construction in the houses capable of elevating them and the Largo. A confrontation by opposition or similarity, in a radical relationship of complexity and contradiction, of shock and surprise, of fast and slow, of movement and stop, of elongated and punctual, of tangent and transversal, of public and private, of high and low, of one and two, of tradition and innovation, of truth and lies, of yes and no, of yes and yes, of randomness and control, of metaphorical and literal, of rigorous and squared, of omission and presence, of past and future, of time and space, of weight and lightness, of closed and open, of symmetrical and asymmetrical, of referenced and non-referenced, of affirmation and denial, of affirmation and affirmation, of material and immaterial, of thick and thin, of ambiguity and logic, of flexibility and obligation, of full and empty, of light and shadow, of light and dark, of possible and impossible, of deep and short, of visible and nonvisible, and lastly, of house and houses. The gap between these various moments, which distinguish or bring the houses closer together, raises the architectural quality of a project, that is both singular and multiple, at the same time.