MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA CINEMA HOUSE BY EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA

“Today our gaze is like that of flies, directed in all directions.”

The architect: 
Eduardo Souto de Moura

Born in Porto in 1952. He studied at the FAUP, School of Architecture of Porto, where one of his professors was Fernando Távora, of whom he said: “one of the few professors who actually taught how to draw.” 

In 1974, he began working in the studio of Álvaro Siza, who later said about him: “I quickly understood, with feigned regret and even greater joy, that I would not have a collaborator for long.”

He worked with Siza until 1979, after which he left to begin his own career. “It wasn’t me who left. One day, he (Siza) told me I could no longer continue in his studio, that I had to think about my own career and not work for another architect.”

In 1980, after graduating, he opened his own architecture practice. He was nominated seven times for the Mies van der Rohe Award, won the “Stone in Architecture” prize, and received both the FAD Prize in 1999 and the Heinrich Tessenow Award.

Since 1997, in Porto, the offices of Souto de Moura, Siza, and Távora have been located in the same building. Távora stated: “This house was necessary, because it existed even before becoming a building—through our bonds of friendship, familiarity, and our shared passion for teaching […] I believe this is a unique situation among architects.” 

The building:  

Manoel de Oliveira Cinema House in Porto, Portugal

The building is a cube, similar to the surrounding houses, with slight inflections to respond to the overall dimensions of the project. The auditorium features a trapezoidal roof. Materials include wood, marble, zinc, and plaster.

The building creates a kind of contextual “collision” with the city. It is designed to establish visual relationships toward the sea. The library space is divided into two parts, oriented toward the river on one side and the sea on the other, for example. Is it an architecture of form? Perhaps. Here, Eduardo Souto de Moura expresses a strong aesthetic, but never disconnected from its context.

Some might say it appears as an “UFO” within a more traditional architectural setting. It doesn’t really matter, the essential point is that the space created, which is ultimately the architect’s core responsibility, is successful. From there, everything can be debated, as long as the function and program are fulfilled. Of course, it is far more complex than that.

project: Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira 

architecture: Eduardo Souto De Moura 

location: Porto, Portugal

client: Camara Municipal do Porto

year: 2003

To explore more projects by this architect, simply follow the link here.