Architecture and territory: the appropriation of topography as a project element in the buildings of Eduardo Souto de Moura and Angelo Bucci

Abstract

The research proposal begins from the interest of this researcher (member of the Nucleus of Research Support in Studies of Languages in Architecture and City - N.ELAC - IAU.USP) to thicken the amalgam created by the International Cooperation Agreement USP/UP, between the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo (IAU.USP), and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP), whose project is entitled "Architecture, Design and Representation: design methodologies in teaching design", establishing connections of knowledge and experimentation in the line who studies the languages of architecture and the city. This research project is based on two researches developed by this researcher between 2013 and 2015. The first one, "Anxious Lines: sketches and projectual actions in the buildings of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura", with funding from the USP Research Office, investigated the importance of freehand drawing in the projective process even with the emergence of new technological devices. In order to contribute to this issue, the sketches of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura were choosed as object of study. Through graphic commentary on these sketches it was possible to verify that the first ideas of the work were already present in the initial sketches. In the second, "Drawn ties: similarities between sketches and designs of the work of Eduardo de Souto Moura and Eduardo de Almeida", with funding from FAPESP (Scientific Initiation), the design processes of the architects Eduardo Souto de Moura (Escola do Porto) and Eduardo de Almeida (Escola Paulista) were analyzed, with the hypothesis being the maintenance of freehand drawing as a primordial tool in the projective process. Thus, an investigative tie was drawn between the sketches and the works of both. From the previous researches, the importance of the topographic question in the projective process of Souto de Moura was apprehended. In this way, as a continuation of this second scientific initiation, this current research project has as objective to analyze the strategies of appropriation of topography in the projective processes of residential works by architects Eduardo Souto de Moura (Porto School) and Angelo Bucci (Paulista School), its relations with the topography and the construction of the landscape. Bucci was chosen as the second architect of this research for being contemporary to Souto de Moura, also being exponent of a School of remarkable architecture and for the importance of the topographic question in his projects, besides his participation in the International Drawing Workshop held at the University of Porto, with the participation of IAU.USP in 2013. This research presents as main hypothesis the use of topography as a defining element of the Project and the intention to enhance the sites in which the works are inserted. Still as hypotheses, it is tried to prove that the projects of Souto de Moura are accommodated in the land, incorporating it to the building, whereas Bucci presents a different design logic. For the research, materials will be produced in loco, through visits to his works (in the case of Angelo Bucci), as well as observation drawings and photographs of works selected based on criteria that will be established throughout the research. Also will be used for the study of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura materials produced during the period in which the student was in exchange graduation in the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (2015-2016). (AU)