Manuel Aires Mateus, founder with his brother Francisco of the Architecture Studio of the same name in Lisbon, will be the protagonist of the conference entitled “the Aires Mateus' Architecture” for the “building living thinking" cycle scheduled on September 28 at the Architecture Gallery, as part of the exhibition Cersaie 2016. The Portuguese architect, born in 1963, will present his projects during a dialogue with Professor Francesco Dal Co.
According to Manuel Aires Mateus, architecture is the art of permanence. It has to endure not only physically, but also conceptually that is however another ‘time’: the resistance of the idea is longer than the physical resistance. In architecture, the concept of time has different meanings: one is its resistance as a physical object that resists to its life; the other is that the architecture is connected with life, not only meant as the function and image but also as the idea of truth. Architecture is a specific point of view: it takes a stand because it is not far from life. However, architecture has to be able to resist to the change of its use, such as the classical buildings that are very flexible from a functional and typological point of view. This is the relationship with time: architecture becomes a container supporting life that is adaptable and reconfigurable through time.
Some of his most important works are: the EDP headquarters in Lisbon, the school of Vila Nova da Barquinha, the new Museum Center of Lausanne, the Faculty of Architecture and Design of Tournai in Belgium, the Arts Center of Sines, the installation for the Venice Biennale in 2012 and many houses all over Portugal. A particularly interesting work is the Lighthouse Museum at Santa Marta beach, in Cascais, near Lisbon in Portugal. It represents two main themes: the daily life of the lighthouse keeper and the history of the place. Besides the area dedicated to the museum, the complex of the Museu Farol de Santa Marta also includes the original lighthouse of 1864 that has two different colors for the facades and the roof: optical white and ocean blue.
