Joo lvaro Rocha

(Paperback, Bilingual edition)

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With this issue, the task began with the TC57 and continued with the TC102/103 is completed, displaying in detail the architectural production of Joao Alvaro Rocha, one of the most interesting architects of contemporary Portuguese architecture. Souto de Moura, in the interview included in this monograph, says that two things have changed the image of Oporto: the Metro and Ryanair. Although we cannot assert that there was any relationship between Rocha and Ryanair, we can assure by the content of this example that the relationship between Rocha and the Porto metro has been very fruitful. Possibly it could not be otherwise, Rocha felt secure in the objective processes, i.e. those projects in which the construction is the fundamental support of the architecture. For this reason, the reader will observe the same coherence in this set of projects, just as in TC102/103 dedicated to housing. Ramn Sanabria calls it precision: "everything becomes coherent and nothing can be dissociated." Perhaps we could also talk about order, systematization, method, etc. All this in a natural manner, seeming that what the audience observes had not represented a huge previous work. The House of Tourism of Ponte de Lima, which appears in the cover of this issue, is a good expression of it. A single action allows the appearance of a new and integrated public space that respects the memory of the place. I want to finish these lines by referring again to Eduardo Souto de Moura, in the interview, when he says: "I have never seen a Rochas work deteriorated."
Bilingual edition: Spanish & English

Author Bio

Joo lvaro Rocha was born in Viana do Castelo, on the north coast of Portugal, on January 10, 1959, and died in Porto on September 13, 2014. Between 1977 and 1982 he completed the Course of Architecture in the Superior School of Fine Arts in Oporto, surpassing the Final Test for obtaining the degree in 1986. He began his professional activity in 1982. Between 1983 and 1990 he collaborated with the office of the architects Jorge Guimares Gigante and Francisco Melo, being responsible for the elaboration of several projects and the assistance to works. From 1990 until 1995 he worked with the architect Jos Manuel Gigante, with whom he shared the authorship of several projects. In 1996 he opened his own office, Joo lvaro Rocha - Arquitectos, Lda. Throughout his career he has carried out an intense teaching activity, begun in 1988/89, in the Course of Architecture of the Superior Artistic School of Oporto. From 1990 to 2001 he taught at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto and gave lectures at the cole d'Architecture in Clermont-Ferrand (France, 1989/90) at the School of Architecture of the International University of Catalonia - Barcelona, Spain, 1998/99), at the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra - Pamplona (Spain, 1998) and the Department of Architecture at Cornell University - New York (United States of America, 2000). His work has been awarded with several prizes, including the National Prize for Architecture - First Works - 1993, awarded by the Association of Portuguese Architects. AIA CE DESIGN AWARD - 2001, awarded by the AIA - American Institute of Architects, being a finalist of the Iberfad / Alejandro de la Sota Awards, Barcelona, in 1996, 2000 and 2002, and the VI Mies van der Rohe Award for European Prize Architecture, Barcelona, 1999. He was also awarded in the Ideas Competition on the experiences of change and the types of future of Social Housing and Housing Official Protection, of the Higher Council of Colleges of Architects of Spain, in 2003.