O pavilhão enquanto diálogo entre escultura e arquitetura: das Gebilde no Douro

Abstract

This dissertation explores the pavilion as a meeting ground between architecture and art, using the design of a temporary structure for Quinta do Seixo in Portugal's terraced Douro landscape as a testing ground. At its core lies a question: how does the pavilion's transient, experimental nature unsettle established ideas of function, permanence and typology in both disciplines? Three lenses-path, matter and boundary-are proposed as critical vectors for exposing conceptual overlap and fertile cross-disciplinary territory. The research unfolds in three interconnected phases. A critical literature review maps the debate through Rosalind Krauss's expanded field, Jane Rendell's critical spatial practice, and Julia Kristeva's reflections on the anxiety of interdisciplinarity, distilling the path-matter-boundary triad. A comparative study of pavilions, sculptures and installations from the 1960s onward then extracts compositional principles that reveal shifting disciplinary boundaries. Finally, those principles are tested in a design experiment on the steep terraces of Quinta do Seixo, where the pavilion develops in dialogue with topography and with the visitor's movement. Theory and practice advance in tandem: the design grows directly out of the analytical themes, while the built proposal returns concrete insights that propel the theory forward. This reciprocal dynamic renders the two strands inseparable. The dissertation ultimately positions the pavilion as both research instrument and poetic catalyst, an ephemeral platform capable of renewing our reading of landscape and of opening new avenues for future critical and design practice.