TC 133- Correia/ Ragazzi architecture

The architecture of Graça Correia and Roberto Ragazzi has a strong presence of material taken to the extreme of its physical and aesthetic debugging.

In their work, the protagonism of the structure is obvious from the very conception, but although it does not work autonomously or impose itself on the formal result, neither hides looking to get that magical effect of surprise so contemporary.

Their way of understanding the function and relation of structure to architecture is far removed from the separation of the two into two autonomous systems, the purely structural and the purely aesthetic.

From the beginning, in their sketches, the structure is neither hidden nor imposed on the form, the same line contains both. The notion of equilibrium prevails, not of a visually unstable equilibrium but, precisely because of the indivisibility between form and structure, an equilibrium in which both weigh equally. Graça and Roberto manage to tame the structure so it becomes an indissoluble part of the form. In other words, it is through the tamed structure that the form is domesticated.