(Es)passos no Tempo: memória em arquitetura

Abstract

"In a society marked by the globalization, where everything seems possible and available, I consider memory as a privileged place for the architect" Renewing the meaning of Mario's Botta sentence in the context of a society where speed erases the inner times in the urgent need of a nearby future, the need for finding the right place for the past becomes progressively more relevant. Therefore, this works stands in the premise of memory as an underpinning feature of a society, motor of human both identity and creativity, and validating it as an instrument for the most varied arts, modern and contemporary ones. Following the memory's definition according to its interdisciplinary (including fields of Medicine, Philosophy, History, among others), this essay analysis the role that memory plays in the different kind of arts, organizing them into a successive approach onto the art of space, fundamental field and objective of this thesis. Considering some indispensable notions such as Time(s), Space, Memory, Forgetting and Imagination, certain questions are weighted in the reasoning of this work: How, in fact, can memory influence the artistic and contemporary processes? What is the role of architecture in this procedure of memory's creation and interpretation? And how does memory relate to the intimacy of an inhabitant and, simultaneously, to his insertion in the context of a given culture or society? How can time(s) (co)inhabit in the art of space? Finally, emphasizing the relevance of memory as an essential instrument - from both the artist's and the interpreter's point of view - in the artistic process as Eco's "open work", this research will focus in its actual implication in Architecture's domain. Choosing Eduardo Souto de Moura's house in Moledo to validate the constructed arguments, the last chapter aims to establish a counterpoint between an autobiographic experience of the house by my living memories and the distanced judgment of the experience, now from an architectural point of view. Understanding that trough the conscience of the past one can incite the creativity of a present, and an identity to built the future, this thesis renews the intimate relationship between memory, dreams and imagination in the architecture of both buildings and life. Remembering the words of Alvaro Siza, "Imagine means remembering what memory has written inside us."