Da casa à paisagem: Leituras da Quinta de Serralves a partir do legado de José Marques da Silva | 1925-1944

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Porto underwent a process of urban expansion and transformation associated with industrial growth and the consolidation of a mercantile and financial bourgeoisie, which drove the progressive occupation of peripheral areas and the reconfiguration of the relationship between centre and periphery. This process of progressive urbanisation altered the landownership and social status of former rural areas, promoting their valorisation and incorporation into new patterns of occupation associated with the city's urban fabric. This dissertation results from a research project centred on the architectural practice of José Marques da Silva, a central figure in Porto's architectural culture, particularly regarding the way in which he operated upon the city as a pre-existing reality. Through the case study of Quinta de Serralves, in addition to analysing the strategies adopted within the project, it is also important to understand the progressive transformation of a rural estate of nineteenth-century origin into one of the most emblematic cases of twentieth-century architecture in Portugal. This process reveals a design logic that begins with an initial and contained intervention aimed at the modification of an annex house. However, it gradually expands towards the global reconfiguration of the entire ensemble, revealing a method of intervention upon the existing based on continuity. In this context, it is also evident how the collaboration with various contributors, including architects and international specialists, contributed to the construction of a unified ensemble in which architecture, from the interior spaces to the urban context and surrounding territory is articulated in such a way as to create a sense of unity, establishing an intrinsic relationship between the house and the landscape.