The Casa da Arquitetura intends to show Metro do Porto's collection over the next three years, with its director considering that the implementation of this transport system, 20 years ago, implied a "positive dissemination" of its architectural language
"The Casa da Arquitetura wants, I would say within three years, to be able to make this great Metro exhibition," the institution's executive director, Nuno Sampaio, told Lusa, regarding the 20 years of Metro do Porto's commercial operation, which are celebrated on Wednesday, in a year in which the Matosinhos-based institution also celebrates five years of existence.
In 2017, when it was inaugurated, Metro do Porto donated its estate to the Casa da Arquitetura but, despite the intentions announced at the time, the thematic exhibition on the theme has yet to take place.
To Lusa agency, the Casa da Arquitetura showed part of the collection donated by the company, among which are a type shelter, models of vehicles, studies for various bridge crossings, models of the unfinished Valbom line (Gondomar), among others.
"The collection consists of 82 projects by 12 architects, in a total of 29 models, more than 25,000 digital photographs and more than 5,000 digital documents (between drawings and textual)," an official source from the Casa da Arquitetura told Lusa.
Besides what was donated by Metro, the House also has the material of the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, architectural coordinator of the project and author of several stations, such as Faria Guimarães, Casa da Música or Campo 24 de Agosto, also exposed to Lusa.
Nuno Sampaio considers that the implementation of Metro in Porto in the municipalities of the metropolitan area where it circulates consisted of a process of "positive dissemination" of a same architectural language.
According to the architect, the Metro gives "the image of a project that has a uniqueness, a same language, that has a same identity", something done "from the design and from the conception of a person like the architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who is a pragmatist".
"The advantage of the Porto Metro in itself is that it created an architectural language so qualified that it contaminated, firstly, the areas surrounding the stations, and then the cities themselves used that language", he pointed out.
As an example, Nuno Sampaio used the moment of arrival at a station, when one realises "that the public space changes quality, and changes positively".
"In the city on the surface we have a time dimension and an overlapping of an informal construction of several architects, people who are not architects, who for many years made the city", he referred.
The municipalities have been trying "to sew all these interventions of the built, sometimes better or worse, trying the best response, but it is a very multiple response".
"On the issue of the Oporto Metro, the problem was so gigantic, to introduce an infrastructure like this, that if it was badly introduced it could blow up the city", he considered.
The Metro "not only solved its problem, which was the infrastructure itself, but it also qualified the city", spreading to other municipalities.
The person in charge highlighted "the [underground] stations themselves, which are architectural pieces that instead of being in height are in depth", not forgetting "all the treatment of the surrounding surface".
"When points are joined, they are points that make sense for the city that is on the surface", adopting "a methodology that builds not only the underground channel".
Nuno Sampaio also recalled the words of a "fellow landscape designer in 2007", saying that "the need for car use in a city is a sign of suburbanity", acknowledging the shock at the time.
"I used the car a lot and calling my city suburban was something that almost offended me. But the truth is that in Manhattan (New York, United States) nobody remembers to take the car downtown," he concluded.
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