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.