Rules for New Frontiers

architects Menos É Mais
interviewed by Bárbara Rangel

 
The path of the architect duo Cristina Guedes and Francisco Vieira de Campos has been marked by constructive rigor articulated with an obsession with drawing the detail, materialized in the exploration of the capabilities of each used material. Their first works, small pavilions perched on maritime or river fronts, were designed like a precision watch, joining metal structures with wood and glass. After working with heavy materials on prefabricated concrete parts at the Prégaia facilities, they began exploring the tectonic value of each material in order to define organically articulated shapes with the surrounding and the terrain at Quinta do Vallado. Now at the Arquipélago, the theme originated from a pre-existing factory built from volcanic rock. The way this factory was built and formalized was the starting point for designing the new spaces that reflected the existing ones. Valorizing the existing buildings evidenced the purity of its construction. The new buildings reinvented the way of building with black concrete, made from the volcanic clusters of the region, all while following the existing shapes. These interventions, as well as numerous recognitions, affirm the duo’s presence in the international panorama of contemporary architecture.