Costa was not interested in recollecting models and references from the past to make populist allusions.These shading elements do not intend to look traditional, but rather to express traditional relationships with light and climate.They reflect patterns of living, old and deep architectural experiences. In this sense, Costa demonstrated the main thesis of his manifesto Razıes da Nova Arquitetura pub - lished fifteen years before. In this text, Costa, claimed that instead of copying decorative elements of colonial architecture, we should understand its spirit, logic and simplicity, the clarity of its construction, and its appropriate- ness to its time and place. In sum, according to him, understanding the essence of colonial architecture is crucial to the formulation of a new architecture. This façade is an attempt to avoid what Jose Luis Sert would call some years later of ‘facades of anonymity’, the monotonous and inflexible glass wall of the most Post-War sky - scrapers. Costa addressed central questions that persist for architects today. In a time in which building practice is reduced to the assembling of pieces and parts, the act of covering, dressing or cladding a façade is deeply affected. How can architects use the most innovative materials, mass-produced elsewhere, while being able to respond to a particular environment? How to mediate between production (modernity and rational- ity) and representation (tradition and conven- tion)? Being free and modern, but made of traditional materials, the Guinle’s façade is an attempt to solve this dilemma.The combogos and lattices are pre-made, industrialized, but are simple, non-mechanical and brought from local workshops. It is a balance between non- technical and technical conditions, between a traditional and a contemporary building prac- tice. Costa demonstrated that technology and inheritance, modern and traditional architec- ture could be reconciled.This surface suc- cessfully mediates between functional and economical requirements and aesthetic impulses, while responding to the local culture and climate.
Lucio Costa.‘Razıes da nova arquitetura’ in Revista da Diretoria de Engenharia do PDF, 3-9 Jan, Rio de Janeiro, 1936. Reprinted in Xavier,Alberto (editor). Depoimento de uma Geraçã o. São Paulo: PINI, 1987. Sert, Jose Luis.‘Windows and Walls: an approach to design’. In Architectural Record 131 no 5, p132-133 About this issue see David Leatherbarrow and Moshen Mostafahvi, Surface Architecture. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002. p9
Fernando Diniz Moreira is assistant professor at the Department of Architecture of the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil.
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