Photography: Carmo Oliveira e Henrique Isidoro
03 / 06 / 2024
In Australia, Vasco Fragoso Mendes combined top-level rugby with architecture. It was here that he found his inner self in a visceral language of architecture, design and carpentry, embodied in objects of profound humanity.
ALEXANDRA NOVO: It was in Portugal that you learnt the craft of working with wood, with the master Francisco Sousa. How did this encounter come about?
VASCO FRAGOSO MENDES: I met Master Francisco Sousa in December 2015, when I entered the Lisbon School of Architecture workshop for the first time. I noticed that he was always busy with his own things, and that students rarely asked him for help. Like any other student, I set to work thinking I could do it on my own, but I soon realised that I didn’t understand. I went to him and asked him to teach me how to make a chair. I made the chair in a day and I was thrilled to be able to design and build it in such a short space of time, to be able to control the process from start to finish. From then on I invented pieces to build, more for the sake of learning than for the piece itself, and six months later I was selling my own pieces to friends and family.
How do you express the experimental approach of Barracão WAD? Do you work with the carpentry team to build the pieces? Where does your everyday inspiration come from? And what are the greatest challenges? I like to experiment and I like to propose new pieces without compromising their intended use. That’s where the name Wood Architecture Design comes from, because I believe that the pieces I create should serve a utilitarian function, while having aesthetic value and being able to improve the environment in which they are placed. I have my own studio, where I work with my team every day. On the one hand, the pieces are now more detailed before we start production, but on the other, I like to let the process influence the work and the final outcome. One of the biggest challenges, and where I particularly like to challenge myself, is to bring reality to imagined pieces, without losing their irreverence and interest for the sake of function.
Let’s talk about the raw material. Why wood? What kind of wood do you work with? Wood because it’s a highly workable material that allows me to create without too many apparent restrictions. But at the same time, it’s a very challenging material due to its characteristics and movements. Since 2018 I’ve been gathering planks of wood that I find in workshops and old sawmills. I have some pieces that I bought at Fernandes & Fernandes in Lisbon, made from wood that came from São Tomé, Brazil or Mozambique in the 1960s, which has nothing to do with what you find today. Three years ago, I took over some stock from a carpentry shop that was about to shut down and I have pieces of Macacaúba, which was frequently used for flooring in the 60s/70s. It’s not always easy to find the right piece to use, but it does happen. I currently work a lot with French Oak and Iroko. These are woods that clients know and want, and I know them well myself. I can predict the movement, design with the grain and make sure the pieces are durable.
VASCO FRAGOSO MENDES: I met Master Francisco Sousa in December 2015, when I entered the Lisbon School of Architecture workshop for the first time. I noticed that he was always busy with his own things, and that students rarely asked him for help. Like any other student, I set to work thinking I could do it on my own, but I soon realised that I didn’t understand. I went to him and asked him to teach me how to make a chair. I made the chair in a day and I was thrilled to be able to design and build it in such a short space of time, to be able to control the process from start to finish. From then on I invented pieces to build, more for the sake of learning than for the piece itself, and six months later I was selling my own pieces to friends and family.
How do you express the experimental approach of Barracão WAD? Do you work with the carpentry team to build the pieces? Where does your everyday inspiration come from? And what are the greatest challenges? I like to experiment and I like to propose new pieces without compromising their intended use. That’s where the name Wood Architecture Design comes from, because I believe that the pieces I create should serve a utilitarian function, while having aesthetic value and being able to improve the environment in which they are placed. I have my own studio, where I work with my team every day. On the one hand, the pieces are now more detailed before we start production, but on the other, I like to let the process influence the work and the final outcome. One of the biggest challenges, and where I particularly like to challenge myself, is to bring reality to imagined pieces, without losing their irreverence and interest for the sake of function.
Let’s talk about the raw material. Why wood? What kind of wood do you work with? Wood because it’s a highly workable material that allows me to create without too many apparent restrictions. But at the same time, it’s a very challenging material due to its characteristics and movements. Since 2018 I’ve been gathering planks of wood that I find in workshops and old sawmills. I have some pieces that I bought at Fernandes & Fernandes in Lisbon, made from wood that came from São Tomé, Brazil or Mozambique in the 1960s, which has nothing to do with what you find today. Three years ago, I took over some stock from a carpentry shop that was about to shut down and I have pieces of Macacaúba, which was frequently used for flooring in the 60s/70s. It’s not always easy to find the right piece to use, but it does happen. I currently work a lot with French Oak and Iroko. These are woods that clients know and want, and I know them well myself. I can predict the movement, design with the grain and make sure the pieces are durable.
Does handcrafting humanise the objects? There’s no doubt that working by hand makes the object much more interesting and more human.
For more information, visit Barracão website.
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