FOR THE BLACK OF THE SOIL AND FOR THE WHITE OF THE WALL
SOPHIA DE MELLO BREYNER ANDRESEN
There is a beauty given to us: beauty of the sea, the light, the mountains,
animals, movements and people.
But there is also another beauty that man has a duty to create: by
the black side of the soil is the man who builds the white wall where the
light and the sky are drawn.
Beauty is not a luxury for aesthetes, it is not an ornament of life, a
useless ornament, a whim. Beauty is a necessity, a principle
of education and joy.
St. Tomás de Aquino says that beauty is the splendour of truth. Through the
quality and degree of beauty of the work we have built will be known if yes
or we don't live with truth and dignity. Man's work is always a
mirror where consciousness is ©.
When we look around us the villages, towns and cities of Portugal
we have to note that almost everything that was built in the last few
decades is ugly. Ugly and - alas! - to last. Ugly the
public works and ugly the private works. Exceptions to the rule of
ugliness are rare.
It is often said that our poverty is the source of our ills. But
what characterizes much of our architecture of this time is the
new-richness. A new exhibitionistic richness - almost always without
functionality and always without culture and without sensitivity.
This is especially sad when we compare the present with the
past: in fact looking at the old stone and lime manor houses we see that
our architecture was able to create nobility without wealth. Hence the purity and
the dignity of so many old houses.
Now it is clearly not a matter of copying the past: architecture
it is an art and art is creation and not imitation. To continue is not to imitate
and imitating is always to offend and betray what is imitated. But is
necessary that there is that awareness of the past and the present to
that we call culture. We are an old country. We are told that we are one
poor country. It is strange that these coordinates result in a
new rich architecture.
The construction of the modern city brings problems difficult to solve:
problems of space and circulation. But among us these problems only
exist in Lisbon and Porto. In the rest of the country the problems are almost
only problems of humanity, common sense, and good taste or
be it problems of morals, intelligence and sensitivity and
culture.
The rule to follow is this: a home for everyone and beauty for everyone. And the
beauty is not expensive. It is generally less expensive than the ugliness that
it is almost always called luxury, monumentalism, pretension. Beauty is
simplicity, truth, proportion. Things that depend much more on the
culture and dignity than money.
I think at this moment especially in the land of the Algarve, with its
beaches, its caves, its promontories, its white walls, its light
very clear. It is necessary not to destroy these things. It is necessary that
that will be built does not destroy what exists.
Art is always the expression of a relationship between man and the world that
surrounds him. Architecture is specifically the expression of a relationship
fair to the landscape and the social world. Outside these coordinates
there is only bad architecture.
It is said that it is necessary to develop the Algarve touristically. For
that we will have to build. But it is necessary that those who go
to build love the space, the light and the others.
There are all the conditions for creating a good
architecture in algarve: there we have a landscape and a light that
ask for "architecture", there we find a beautiful and traditional use of
clay and lime; there we have a smooth and pure local architecture as a
modern architecture, a popular architecture whose themes
architect can develop in a more technical and more cultured way:
there we have a climate that makes life easier and proposes solutions
of extreme simplicity.
There we can have the materials, the innovations, the technique and the culture
of our time. There, can work the competent architects that
exist in our country.
But it is urgent to avoid the following dangers:
- Incompetence
- Saloism (gauche)
- Speculation with land
- The bad architects
- False traditionalism
- The craze for luxury and pomp
- The facade works
Above all, it is necessary to avoid the lack of love. From all arts
architecture is both the most abstract and the most connected to
life. Those who doesn't love neither space, nor shadow, nor light, nor
cement, nor stone, nor lime, nor the others, will not be able to create
good architecture.
(Published in January 1963, at nº 21 of the "Távola Redonda")
