BUOYANCY OF A STONE RAFT NEW ARCHITECTURE IN THE AZORES

摘要

Positioned at 25° west, 37° north, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the island of Sao Miguel has in the last ten years become the centre of arguably the most vibrant experimentation for Portugal's new generation of architects. Architect-curators Pedro Gadanho and Luis Tavares Pereira's recent analysis of contemporary Portuguese architecture in Influx, a travelling show that began in Oporto's Fundacao Serralvcs, revealed a surprising number of young studios building in the Azores, of which the island of Sao Miguel is the largest and most populated. A satellite in a distant orbit around Portugal - a country itself along Europe's periphery - and only recently receiving funding to encourage growth, the Azores have become an escape-valve and proving ground for architectural design, providing space for reflection and to rethink architectural practice in a developing context. Gcographically remote and staunchly agricultural, Sao Miguel and its eight island neighbours boast, to this day, no buildings by Portugal's twentieth-century masters.