Souto Moura - Arquitectos

As well as the ground-breaking new buildings produced by Eduardo Souto de Moura, the architect has also worked on the exquisite transformation of ruined buildings for re-use. Completed over twenty years ago, the transformation of the Santa Maria do Bouro Convent into a hotel offered an approach to restoration, possessing a vitality and authority not much evident since the work of Carlo Scarpa in Verona. In the Alentejo project a transformation happens at a different scale. Souto de Moura describes the “urban nature of the monte”, a mini-universe, with its streets, squares, cloisters and outhouses. He talks about the danger of this kind of work, “If we go too far we will spoil it, if we don’t do enough it won’t work”. Olive-press areas become a living room or a bar; a cowshed becomes a restaurant. He states: “the only way to preserve heritage is to live with it and use it – only everyday living transforms it into something and gives it heritage status”.
Aerial photos are used to show the site in ruins and the ensuing transformation over many years. He says: “The picturesque is a question of fate, not part of a project or a programme”.
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