Porto Take 2

Today was all Siza, and it was good. This first bit is a public housing project he did and I have to say it spoke to me. Not really because the thing is groundbreaking or earthshattering, but because it makes the everyday not so ordinary. I´m sure this commission wasn´t hard to get, but that didn´t stop him from really making the most of it. Let Rem and Liebskind have all the art and music galleries, what we need is someone who will take on the everyday in the same way and with the same intensity.

We then quickly hit the beach. Siza designed a public pool there early in his career and we were looking forward to some drawing time on the beach. Unfortunately we were met by an jerk who wouldn´t let us in, so we snapped a few shots from the fence and moved on (for now) to Siza´s first project, the Teahouse.

Siza designed this house in his early twenties at the beginning of his career. Really unbelievable. The house is a restaurant now, but is the best beach house ever. Every corner was a new insight.

We tried again on the way back from the Teahouse to get into the pool, but the aforementioned grumpy old man wouldn´t have it, and then it rained, so we ran for cover in the closest building that would let us in, McDonalds? A few of us ended up having lunch there, during which we decided we had to try at least one more time to get into the pool.

When we got there the old man had left, but there were still 2 security guards on watch. They wouldn´t let us in at first, but the girls finally seduced them into letting us in and we all went crazy. I think the guards thought we just broke out of the funny house or something. We just ran around snapping shots everywhere for as long as they would let us. We came, we fought, we conquered.

Spent the rest of the afternoon at Siza´s Faculty of Archtecture building. I think this is the third or fourth really good school of architecture I´ve visited and every time I wonder how U of M ended up with such an ugly building. Nothing I can do about that, but we did have a great afternoon walking through the buildings and the courtyards. The trees were remarkable. It was a good day, but by the end I had nothing left, totally wasted.