CARLOS M TEIXEIRA: I am from Brazil, I studied architecture there. It’s very divided amongst traditions. One is called “Carioca school”; the school from Rio De Janeiro: it’s very plastic and formalist and the other one is the “Paolista school”; it’s very rational, very rigorous. I’m not part of any of these schools.
I wrote a book ten years ago, History Of The Void and the book was about how important the void spaces are in urban planning and how these void spaces were invented by architecture because of lack of planning.
I had an opportunity to work with very clear continuation of the text of this book when a theatre group invited me to imagine where they could present their next play. We chose a void space between concrete pillars; it is underneath some residential buildings in the city.
The first idea I had was a kind of spiral staircase with some booths along the stairs. The idea was to use the visitors themselves as the performance. They are going to be squeezed together because of the dimension of the architecture. I had in mind to use architecture as a way to invent spontaneous performance amongst the visitors. I am curious to know what Rural Studio is going to build in the Porter Gallery. I am told their object is quite horizontal and mine is kind of a vertical box so I am curious to see what is going to happen.
