ARCHITECTURE: Building Stories

The exhibition “Building Stories” ranges from the scale of the territory to the one-to-one, pursuing the architect’s imaginary. Building Stories shows achievements, turning points or simply notes and desires from Architecten De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, MAIO and Ricardo Bak Gordon are shown as live expressions of a much larger universe.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation Archive

The exhibition “Building Stories” is about what cannot be easily perceived at first glance in architecture: an exhibition about how architecture is produced and built, is the representation of an abstract landscape made up of architectural fragments. Like a permanent construction site, it emphasises the dimensions of the exhibition space as if it was a piece of land or a contemporary industrial ruin where it is easy to imagine the cold smell of fresh cement and the sound of heavy machinery. The intent is to transcend the limits of the museum space and focus on architecture as a discipline. The exhibition thus establishes a conversation between De Vylder Vinck Taillieu (aDVVT), MAIO and Ricardo Bak Gordon, these architects who despite each having their own ideas, methods and formal expression, both share architecture as a common ground, weaving their individual and unique approaches together. The firm aDVVT is composed of Jan De Vylder, Inge Vinck and Jo Taillieu, who all studied at Sint-Lucas in Ghent.The architecture of aDVVT begins in the milieu of everyday existence. Unlike many other architectural styles of today, they go back to the basics of the craft of architecture: they love to build, and this pleasure manifests itself in their actual constructions. Their projects offer a counterbalance to the often rigid and cold structures that are built everywhere these days. Intuitiveness, straightforwardness, playfulness and coincidences are central to their work. Treating every project separately and starting each time from a blank mental slate, they do not strive for a signature architectural style in their work. Their architecture is very subtle, never dramatically present and does not aim to make overt statements. It’s an architecture that starts from the needs of the client, the program and the ensuing practical constraints. The look of their projects is often determined by practical motivations and solutions, and the decorations that arise from these factors. The ordinary becomes the foundation, the cornerstone. MAIO is an architectural office that works on flexible systems where notions such as variation, ephemeral or ad hoc, permit theoretical positions materialize. MAIO is led by Maria Charneco, Alfredo Lérida, Guillermo López and Anna Puigjaner, architects based in Barcelona,  that combine professional activities with academic, research and editorial ones. Their practice has developed a wide range of projects, from housing blocks or urban planning to furniture or exhibition design. Bak Gordon Architects is an architectural office based in Lisbon, Portugal founded by architect Ricardo Bak Gordon in 2002, who is best known for producing buildings that are sensitive to the local context and culture with attention given to the small, everyday uses of his clients. The studio has developed projects of different scales, programs, and typologies in Portugal and abroad. In all designs, it explores a vision that is simultaneously poetic and technical, as well as carefully related to site and public space. Currently, the studio has a team of ten architects. Their main work themes are housing and urban planning as well as cultural, industrial, educational, and sporting facilities. The studio participates in national and international competitions.

Info: Curators: Rodrigo da Costa Lima & Amélia Brandão Costa, Garagem Sul, Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation, Praça do Império, Lisbon, Duration: 10/7-14/10/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.ccb.pt/Default