Carlos Castanheira Architects
Rua do Conselheiro Veloso da Cruz no 61, 4400-336 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
"ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DETAIL…
in architecture… in life.
If detail didn’t exist, we wouldn’t exist.
Is in the detail that there is the Total and the essence.
If there wasn’t for the detail, the space wouldn’t exist as well as its control or creation.
The absence of detail is the rough, the amorphous, that is now called concept.
It is nothing but an overshadow and empty idea … without the definition that detail will provide it with.
The detail is the definition of the Total and it is in direct line.
The Total changes from the intention to the execution and to possible realization.
When there is no detail, others will do it for us and the Total stops being it.
It transforms itself into something different. It stops being ours and becomes theirs. Comes back to the amorphous.
Detail is hard-working. It becomes disturbing and the reason of many disagreements.
We are also the consequence of many and different details.
Within the Total we are unique, with our own personality and, above all, the character of the concept.
The absence of detail – or its execution – is to delegate in others the conclusion of the idea, of the concept.
As if the authorship could be the property of someone else that didn’t make part of the Total.
What would become of food without the salt … a simple detail, but …
What would become of Life without Art … a simple detail, but…
God is in details … someone said. Someone else also said that Detail is not God. But it is always omnipresent."
CARLOS CASTANHEIRA
Lisbon, June 1957.
Graduated in Architecture by the School of Fine Arts of Oporto (1976-1981).
Lived in Amsterdam, from 1981 to 1990, where he worked as an Architect and studied at the Academie Voor Bouwkunst Van Amsterdam.
In 1993 he founded the practice Carlos Castanheira & Clara Bastai, Arquitectos Lda. with the Architect Maria Clara Bastai.
Working, mainly, in the private sector, he has acted as juror on competition panels, participated in conferences, has been involved in setting up Architectural education courses and workshops, has curated and organized exhibitions, and has edited and published books and catalogues.
Since he was a student he has been collaborating with the Architect Álvaro Siza in various projects in Portugal but, mostly, abroad.
