RESEARCH & ACADEMICS

Concurrently they refer to the double cone diagram as a universal symbol representing a projectional relationship between viewer and the building/complex – the subject and the object – through the gaze, and of life and death over time. The red sign represents Acropolis. The two main intersections marked on the vertical double cone are referring to vantage points. The intersection of the smaller vertical double cone refers to the center just inside the Propylaea. A directed point of view over “X” towards the corners of the temples. The lines of the larger tilted double cone is referring to landscape symbols, the conical mount, Lycabettus Hill, and valley “bowl” in the further distance mountain range. The positioning of the alter and the old temple of Athene Polias are thought to have been directed after these landscape features. The two small circles indicated on the double cone sign lines represent two monumental statues erected on Acropolis. The centered circle, marks a point outside the Propylaea, and refers to the Agrippa monument. The tangential circle, inside the Acropolis sanctuary represents the statue of Athene Promachos by Pheidias.

The black sign represents The School of Architecture, O’Porto by Alvaro Siza. The project is composed as a triangular plan figure with two centers on an axis referencing the ellipse of the baroque period. The opposing centers generate the projection plane of the double cones. The displacement of the picture plane is caused by two different angles in the geometrical composition of the triangular plan. Siza also makes use of fixpoints over “X”. The corner of the existing Ramos Pavilion is used for this purpose. The pavilion above the triangular master plan is an earlier extension of the school, also designed by Siza.

The two tablets are each shaped as a sectional half wedge. They are identical, but at the same time different. They reference the Hermes statue from antiquity. The latter started as a simple herd of stones. As marker of boundaries in the landscape. Later it took shape as a stone stele with a double face, sometimes male/female, indicating a duality. The tablets represent unity, duality and difference in one whole.

The tablets appear as a marble illusion. In changing light the surface shifts from mat to shiny. Both have the same “etched” imprints appearing as corrosions in the polished surface. These function as a narrative layer, composed of symbols, pictograms, icons and architectural elements referencing antiquity and modernity, and adhering to no particular chronological order. They are assembled in story lines as their own “hieroglyph” type vocabulary. The big signs in red and black are applied as the finishing layer. They create the differentiation and depict time.

The third element of the installation, the sculpture, in white lacquer high gloss finish, indicates a place in between. From this point, the viewer is offered a vantage point, that: Divides time, Reflects time and Collects time. In another gaze, in a position in front of the object, antiquity and modernity are united in a diachronic perspective.

Detail, the sculpture reflects the tablet signs in the vertical triangulated front figure

Detail, black geometric sign with symbols appearing a reflective illusions

Plan of O’Porto Architecture School by Alvaro Siza

Perspective of O’Porto Architecture School by Alvaro Siza

Plan of O’Porto Architecture School, Composition diagram with geometrical sign overlay

Plan diagram of O’Porto Architecture School, Abstract geometric analysis

Elevation of O’Porto Architecture School