São Lourenço do Barrocal
200best ES
Eduardo Souto de Moura
2016
Type
Hotel
Tags
renovations, spaces for tourism, 200Best
Visitability
Allowed
Description
São Pedro do Corval is a place enhanced by ruins, as often happens in the history of architecture.The project carried out by the studio was not exactly an architectural project, but a sort of ‘mineral’ painting, the recording of an image, of an environment, of a geography that had been transformed and which the studio wanted to restore. The ‘simulation’ was not easy, as it was close to ‘pastiche’. The architect faced criticism from friends and colleagues, but then, when they visited him, they felt good and thanked him for the work he had done. In the end, they managed to confirm that ‘Manichaeism’ does not work for architecture, that there is no ancient architecture that is not contemporary and that there is no modern architecture that, from the moment it is created, does not become part of today’s history. After some ‘technical assistance’, an artwork consisting of two photographs was exhibited at the Venice Biennale and was awarded a Golden Lion, which came as a surprise for the architect.(Description provided by Souto de Moura Architects)