Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede

A look at the visual archive behind the work of the Portuguese architect and latest Pritzker laureate.

Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede. Imagens de Método (Eduardo Souto de Moura: Wall Atlas. Images of Method), with texts by Pedro Bandeira, Philip Ursprung, Diogo Seixas Lopes and Eduardo Souto de Moura, Dafne Editora, December 2011 (144 pp, €29,50)

How to chart an architect's way of working? What is this knowledge made of? How is it built?
This book wanders through these questions, using the visual universe of architect Eduardo Souto de Moura to formulate some hypothesis. The many images that dot the pages of this book were collected by Souto de Moura, and are complemented by original drawings and projects. They were, or are still, on the walls of his office, archived in sturdy drawers, hanging on the walls of his house, and most of all, present or latent in the way Souto de Moura envisions architecture. (from the publisher's catalog entry)

Atlas de Parede is a welcome window into the thought and work process of a silent, taciturn architect whose muscular work was catapulted to fame following his Pritzker Prize win in 2011. Edited by the small Porto architecture publisher Dafne, and launched on the occasion of Guimarães European Capital of Culture 2012, the book is partly scavenger hunt and partly architectural treaty. Its pictorial richness is its most interesting feature: from newspaper clippings, to slides, postcards, annotations and drawings, each page is a beautiful composition waiting to be discovered. Strikingly, each piece of this visual archive has a number but no label, which makes it extremely liberating to navigate it as you please. Two pages amidst the archive identify provenance of every item, but they are easily overlooked should you choose to.
Dafne Editora, <em>Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método</em> cover
Dafne Editora, Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método cover
Souto de Moura's visual archive suggests an obsessive attention to detail, a fascination with rhythms and textures, an interest in both the low and highbrow – Madonna and the Bechers stand but a few pages apart. His influences are stapled all over the book: the ever-present Donald Judd – Souto de Moura studied to be a sculptor before he became an architect –, Mies van der Rohe, Oscar Niemeyer, but also Álvaro Siza and Fernando Távora. More mundane details of Souto de Moura's life are also exposed: the newspaper he reads (Portuguese daily Público), airlines he's flown with (Austrian, Portugália), brands of tobacco he's smoked (Camel).
Dafne Editora, <em>Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método</em> spread
Dafne Editora, Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método spread
The reverie comes to an end with the latter part of the book, which reunites a few essays, in Portuguese, by authors Philip Ursprung, Diogo Seixas Lopes and Pedro Bandeira. These take a closer look at Souto de Moura's office – classified as "an artist's space" –, or elaborate on how the image is used in architectural research and method. Reverential and filled with jargon, these take away some of the enchantment of the visual archive, but anchor the book in more theoretical grounds. The final pages hold a short text by Souto de Moura, which, although labeled an "un-scientific autobiography," is in reality his 2010 acceptance speech for the L'Academie d'Architecture de France medal. Here, he describes his work and influences in a series of short episodes, from Saint Augustine to Mies, illuminating his own – sometimes obscure – thought process.
Dafne Editora, <em>Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método</em> spread
Dafne Editora, Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método spread
"Mies always quoted Saint Augustine stating that "beauty is the mirror of truth," but Mies lied," writes Souto de Moura. "He always lied in his construction details, which were always covered up with some other, more scenographic materials. This is the contradiction that interests me the most in his work. Mies had an all-glass apartment in Lake Shore Drive, which he never moved into. He always lived inside walls, in the shadow, surrounded by artworks. To discover why Mies never moved is to understand the constant becoming of architecture." Vera Sacchetti (@verasacchetti)
Dafne Editora, <em>Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método</em> spread
Dafne Editora, Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método spread
Dafne Editora, <em>Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método</em> spread
Dafne Editora, Eduardo Souto de Moura: Atlas de Parede, Imagens de Método spread

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