if you could meet

[Rita Ochoa]

since you knom Siza´s work what is your favorite building, if you can choose one? Do you know his Portugal pavillion in Expo 98?

[murcon]

No one mention poor ould Miesie? Now the man was a pure-bred genius to basically rehash the same idea from a 3-d sculpture in a Barcelona park to colonise Europe and America!!!!!

[aland]

Rita, my favourite Siza is Santa Maria Church, Marco de Canavezes. The purity, simplicity, scale and whiteness of the interior is impressive but could only work in a hot climate . I have not seen the Portugese pavillion but it also looks very good from the Mags.

Murlon , It's not only Mies, the same building, Richard Rogers buildings it seems to me are refinements of Pompidou. The original though has the energy.

[Rita Ochoa]

Alan Dunlop,the church is really beautiful and unique but the Portugal Pavillion as a scale and form that i cant compare with any other project i´ve ever seen... and the acoustic is also great. You have to visit it someday , feel it and apreciate the clean silence it provoques. Its situated in Expo 98 in Lisbon where u can also visit some other great buildings as the Calatrava train station or Tomás Taveira Urban Plan (do u know him?). sorry for my bad english

[Hugh]

I can vouch for Siza's Portugal Pavilion in Lisbon - one of the few great Expo buildings of recent years, achieving its effects by means other than mere spectacle - though the draped-sheet thin concrete canopy/gateway, presumably cast on a cable net, is damn impressive.

But as Rita observes, Siza is very much alive. So here's another for our dead-heroes list. How about meeting Charles and Ray Eames on site in Pacific Pallisades with John Entenza, begetter of the "Case Study" homes series? No-one has ever done the industrial-components house thing better.

[aland]

Rita, we have an office trip every year. 25 architectural junkies fixing on architecture for a week. This year was Rome the last New York. On your recommemdation we'll try Lisbon next year. Any other suggestions? I think also the RIAI are also planning their convention in Lisbon?

[Rita Ochoa]

Alan Dunlop, well i think that Lisbon would be a good choice for your office trip next year because you can find in an old city great buildings or urban plans from the XIV cent. to now days. The downtown was re-builted after the earthquake in 1755 and it stills a great urban concept. Instead of what happend in Sevilha, the Expo 98 in Lisbon was part of a urban plan that considered the future (after Expo 98) that was designed and builded very fast. Even then the result is a very nice area near the river that includes great buildings from "good" architects, plazas, equipments, urban furniture and also nice pubs (or cafés as we call it) . For exemple Siza and Calatrava buildings dist from eachother only about 200m!

You can also easly find good architecture guides of Lisbon. But Portugal is a small country, wich means you can also travel around. At the South you will find the tradicional Alentejo houses (only possible with this climate) and at the North you can visit Oporto (a large concentration of Siza´s buildings!).

If you consider to visit Lisbon i can help you with some portuguese architectures websites where you can find more information.

To visit Expo 98 trough the net go to : http://www.parquedasnacoes.pt/ its not very good (mainly text) but it will give you an idea.


About the RIAI convention in Lisbon i have no idea if there will be one.

[izz]

Charles Eames. But not just to meet him, to be in the same time as him. Democratic and light-hearted, an attribute that is not too typical of architects.

[trace]

Dates for RIAI/RSUA conference in Lisbon: November 7-11, 2001.

[deepnote]

yeah Eames & wife; do not want to meet Mick Graves dead or alive; would like to meet Aalto; Wright during his Oak Park tenure; Stirling in his younger days;

[Cisco]

Hmmmm.. I would like to pick over the bones of a roast chicken dinner with Santiago Calatrava, and try to figure out what goes on in his head.

[doozer]

In the last two months I have had the pleasure of meeting both Michael Graves and Peter Eisenman- your not missing anything.

[deepnote]

the good thing about dead architects is that you meet them through their work and not their persona which might be quite insufferable...talkitecture tends to fade with the passing of the architect unless they were more of an author than a builder