Photography: Tiago Rebelo de Andrade + Miguel Veloso
09 / 06 / 2023
Sculpture was his first love, but destiny would have it that he would express himself through architecture. With a deep respect for the landscape and a humility that transpires in everything he does, Luís Rebelos de Andrade describes himself as a man of passions - for art, for architecture and for life. In the year he turns 70, he welcomed us to his new office - which occupies what was formerly the wine cellar of the small palace of the Carbide’s Counts - to talk about his career, about architecture and about the things that lie ahead.
With a vast portfolio and a consolidated track record, his work is guided by the pursuit of authenticity and sustainability, recognised and affirmed in Portugal and beyond. As for the future, Luís Rebelo de Andrade looks forward to more poetry, and to transforming the office into an atelier-school, offering the public the chance to draw inspiration from different areas and individuals.
ANA RITA SEVILHA What are your first memories related to architecture? LUÍS REBELO DE ANDRADE I had always wanted to study sculpture and painting, but my parents didn’t think it was a good idea, which left me with a certain vacuum in terms of interests, and so I started working to earn money and gain my independence. I was 18 at the time. But one day, I found myself thinking that if I didn’t get into higher education I was just going to end up in the army, and that terrified me. Architecture emerged as an escape, it was the closest thing to sculpture. But then I did the first year of my degree in Fine Arts, and I began to fall in love with the idea. Then came the 25th April revolution, the school closed and I went back to my previous life — at that time I’d already joined the territorial reserve. Later, when I met my wife I went back to studying architecture. And I ended up falling in love with it, because I realised it actually had a lot to do with what I liked: the arts, sculpture, drawing...
What kind of legacy has sculpture left you as your first passion? What we do today is a reflection of who we are. Everything that we produce has already been absorbed by us in some way; then it’s about the way we mix those spices, that information that we receive in a spontaneous way. Architecture, to a certain ex- tent, also has something of sculpture. In both cases we’re talking about form, although a form that has more to do with the city, also has more responsibility and should be devoid of any vanity, because it’s going to affect something that belongs to everyone, the landscape.
You opened your studio in 1989. What was the life of an architect like at that time? We would work 12 to 14 hours a day; we had to complete the work within the agreed deadlines. It was a period when the computer was born for architecture and became “the” tool. Until then, before opening the studio, we worked with artisanal drawing processes: ruler, set square, pen, scraping away in order to rub out... Over these years, approaches to working on architectural projects have changed a lot, and very quickly. I had to learn to work with the computer, and as technology appeared to make our lives easier, it also became more complicated because it required us to work faster. There are some projects that we instantly know how to tackle, but there are others that need a more unhurried approach, that need to be mulled over ... and the current fast pace of things sometimes doesn’t make things any easier. Each place has its own character, each programme is unique, each place has a different climate and therefore each one has its own DNA and a response needs to be tailored towards that.
ANA RITA SEVILHA What are your first memories related to architecture? LUÍS REBELO DE ANDRADE I had always wanted to study sculpture and painting, but my parents didn’t think it was a good idea, which left me with a certain vacuum in terms of interests, and so I started working to earn money and gain my independence. I was 18 at the time. But one day, I found myself thinking that if I didn’t get into higher education I was just going to end up in the army, and that terrified me. Architecture emerged as an escape, it was the closest thing to sculpture. But then I did the first year of my degree in Fine Arts, and I began to fall in love with the idea. Then came the 25th April revolution, the school closed and I went back to my previous life — at that time I’d already joined the territorial reserve. Later, when I met my wife I went back to studying architecture. And I ended up falling in love with it, because I realised it actually had a lot to do with what I liked: the arts, sculpture, drawing...
What kind of legacy has sculpture left you as your first passion? What we do today is a reflection of who we are. Everything that we produce has already been absorbed by us in some way; then it’s about the way we mix those spices, that information that we receive in a spontaneous way. Architecture, to a certain ex- tent, also has something of sculpture. In both cases we’re talking about form, although a form that has more to do with the city, also has more responsibility and should be devoid of any vanity, because it’s going to affect something that belongs to everyone, the landscape.
You opened your studio in 1989. What was the life of an architect like at that time? We would work 12 to 14 hours a day; we had to complete the work within the agreed deadlines. It was a period when the computer was born for architecture and became “the” tool. Until then, before opening the studio, we worked with artisanal drawing processes: ruler, set square, pen, scraping away in order to rub out... Over these years, approaches to working on architectural projects have changed a lot, and very quickly. I had to learn to work with the computer, and as technology appeared to make our lives easier, it also became more complicated because it required us to work faster. There are some projects that we instantly know how to tackle, but there are others that need a more unhurried approach, that need to be mulled over ... and the current fast pace of things sometimes doesn’t make things any easier. Each place has its own character, each programme is unique, each place has a different climate and therefore each one has its own DNA and a response needs to be tailored towards that.
Is that what you mean when you talk about an architecture of overcoming rather than an architecture of imposition? Exactly! In our portfolio there is no repeated response, there is no prescriptive recipe. Everything has an objective, everything is made for a given location, and I can’t see them outside the place they are intended for. We have to respect the identity of the sites, we have to work with the local materials — and then there is something that points us in the direction of the solution, which is related to the place. We have projects that are very much influenced by
For more information, visit Rebelo de Andrade website.
Related Articles
-
WOODS + DANGARAN
Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran became friends long before they started sharing their studio where, since 2013, they have continued to express their meticulous and integrated vision, using a large team of collaborators to recreate the timeless beauty of Californian modernist houses. Through discipline and a good dose of optimism, the American pair restore the original to contemporary spaces, revealing how architecture can, ultimately, transcend the inexorable power of its locations. -
Francisco Nogueira
-
Casa Um
Beyond their Belgian nationality, Bert Jeuris and Ludovic Beun also share a deep passion for Portugal. After numerous trips to the eastern Algarve, the pair decided they had to share this place with the world.
