Three buttons on the sleeves
United States 1960 and Távora’s strangeness
José António Bandeirinha
Fernando Távora, an architect and a teacher from northern Portugal, won a scholarship to visit a set of architectural education institutions. He left on the 13 of February of 1960, America was dealing with the crude consequences of post-war territorial strategies.
The set of drawings, texts and other chartaceous resources that form the diary of Távora’s journey constitute a composite work of essential value to a greater understanding, not only of his career as an architect, professor and thinker, but also to a reframing of the paths threshed by architecture in the modern turn.
The diary is an essential component of this trip since he systematically registered his activity, observations and impressions regarding each day in a small notebook, being the text accompanied many times by drawings.
From this document, I propose to reflect on some of Fernando Távora’s considerations regarding what he will demarcate as a cultural difference between his European/Portuguese context and the condition of North-American life at the time, particularly in what concerns the city and urban culture.
The pertinence of this study will be centered on how the object of analysis permits the recognition of a contemporary urban phenomenon in Europe – the hegemony of North-American cultural models of suburbanization – spectacularly reproduced from the colonial city that the Europeans themselves emitted as a model from the XVI century onwards.
Keywords: cultural models, ways of life, urban processes, hegemonies, suburbanization, post CIAM generation.
José António Bandeirinha. Graduated in 1983 as an architect from the Escola Superior de Belas-Artes of Porto. Currently he is full professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra, where he completed his PhD in 2002 entitled "The SAAL process and the architecture in April 25th 1974".
Having as main reference architecture and the organisation of space, he has been dedicating his work to several subjects — city and urban condition, housing, theatre, cultural studies. From 2007 until 2011 he held the position of Pro-rector for cultural affairs at the University of Coimbra, and from 20011 until 2013 he was the Director of the College of the Arts at the University of Coimbra. In 2012 he curated the exhibition "Fernando Távora Permanent Modernity”, coordinated by Álvaro Siza.
He was the scientific consultant of the exhibition "The SAAL Process Architecture and Participation 1974-1976", curated by Delfim Sardo and organized by the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Oporto, Portugal, in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Canada (2014-2015).
He is a senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Currently he holds the position of director of the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra, which he has held before from 2002 until 2004, and from 2006 until 2007.
José António Bandeirinha had been continuously working on the urban and architectural consequences of political procedures, mainly focusing on the Portuguese 20th century’s reality.
Having as main reference architecture and the organisation of space, he has been dedicating his work to several subjects — city and urban condition, housing, theatre, cultural studies. From 2007 until 2011 he held the position of Pro-rector for cultural affairs at the University of Coimbra, and from 20011 until 2013 he was the Director of the College of the Arts at the University of Coimbra. In 2012 he curated the exhibition "Fernando Távora Permanent Modernity”, coordinated by Álvaro Siza.
He was the scientific consultant of the exhibition "The SAAL Process Architecture and Participation 1974-1976", curated by Delfim Sardo and organized by the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Oporto, Portugal, in collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal, Canada (2014-2015).
He is a senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Currently he holds the position of director of the Department of Architecture at the University of Coimbra, which he has held before from 2002 until 2004, and from 2006 until 2007.
José António Bandeirinha had been continuously working on the urban and architectural consequences of political procedures, mainly focusing on the Portuguese 20th century’s reality.
