Yasuko's Room
Contributed by Yasuko Seki
I saw two architectures at two opposite ends <2>
Alvaro Siza and Rem Koolhaas
By Yasuko Seki
2005/10/21
Casa Da Musica
Inside it, there are two halls of big and small with various service rooms related with music. Its outer appearance is that of a simple huge contemporary art. Its inside is, however, a full variety of most advanced modern architecture.
The reason why I felt like this seems to be its design that deliberately makes such spaces for the function of transferring visitors as the corridor, the staircase and the escalators , etc narrow and going through them, they find themselves in the foyer from where they can look over all the city of Porte, in the rest lobby the walls of which are filled with the famous Azulejos tiles of Portugal, in the rooftop under the pure blue sky and in the spacious rooms that go on one after another.
The Foyer of Casa Da Musica
The escalator of Casa Da Musica
Porte Museum of Modern Art
designed by Siza
The outer appearance of the church
designed by Siza
Inside the church
Well, let me move on to Mr.Siza. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant designed by a team of architects of which Mr.Siza was a member. It is an early work of him that stands at the very ideal location overlooking Atlantic Ocean. In the vicinity is a facility of swimming pool also designed by Mr.Siza, which, together with the restaurant, constitutes a set menu for visitors.
The restaurant, maybe because it was a work of a team, gave me an impression of the work of Alvar Aalt, a Finnish architect rather than that of Siza. All of the building, the food and the location were of supreme quality. I want to go there again. The pool is designed, making good use of the seaside landscape. Though I took a swimming suit with me just in case, it was already closed and its employees were cleaning it.
We spent the rest of the day visiting Porte Architectural University, where Siza is teaching and Porte Modern Art Museum. Even though it was enjoyable, visiting as many as five buildings in one day was an exhausting tour schedule. However, all of the architectures, the restaurant, the pool, the university and the museum are located in very wonderful places and Siza's works like white sculptures make complete harmony with these locations. The created spaces, being in a great contrast with the works of Koolhaas, are full of calmness, sophisticated mood and quietness that I felt has transcended the flow of time and ages.
Although both Mr. Koolhaas and Mr. Siza are world-famed architects, what we see in their architectures are the completely opposite views held by the two. One of them is a globe-trotting personality who takes in advance the new values and streams of the times and leads them. The other keeps on staying in a local city, Porte and concentrates himself to deepen his own world. In spite of this, or rather, because of this, his work at this local city comes to take on a global nature.
Globalism or localism is an often discussed question but architectures, unlike products and information that are transferable, clearly show us the contrast between these two concepts. I wonder what the future people in 50 or 100 years will see in these contrasting works of architecture? What I can say here is that while I can imagine Mr.Siza's works in the future, Mr. Koolhaas's world as represented by 'Casa Da Musica' is beyond my own limited imaginative power.
The next day, we went to see a church designed by Mr. Siza taking a train-ride of 1 and a half hour and an additional taxi-ride.
