STONE COFFERS

The vaults and crossing of S. Vicente de Fora, one of the most exquisitely designed churches in Lisbon. Late 16th-early 17th century, the original architect was Filipe Terzio. A sort of High Renaissance from an estranged Italian, every piece relates to the whole and the detailing is superb, sharp and highly inventive.

OLIVE OIL GAUGE

 

Olive Oil Gauge manufactured by António Nunes, Lisboa

ANALOG SCALE

Analog Scale, manufactured by Avery Portuguesa Limitada, Lisbon

STONE MADNESS II

Side Chapel, Church of São Roque, Lisbon. The intarsia work is stone madness at its best, but compared to the Chapel of S. João Baptista, in the same church, the overall design result seems rough and naive.

STONE MADNESS I

 

Capela de São João Baptista, Igreja de São Roque, Lisbon.
The church is the Portuguese "shoe-box" or "living room" type, with adjacent chapels. One of these was made in Italy - already at the time, taste was being exported everywhere. So a scale model was built, approved by the King, and years later the whole thing arrived disassembled in Lisbon in crates, a bit like an impossibly upscale Ikea closet. The design architects here were Luigi Vanvitelli and Nicola Salvi, with direction from the Italianized German Ludovice, who was working in Portugal at the time - the late 1740s. Besides the gilding and bookmatching of the stone, the architectural layout of the chapel is a fully mature Roman Baroque (albeit already in its more rigid later form) and looks especially sophisticated when in comparison to its crude local counterparts.

FAUCETS

Faucet types in the historical chemical laboratory of the "Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa"

ATTIC WOOD STRUCTURE

O Sotão, Design Store, Lisbon

NEGRO DO FUMO

Laboratorio Chimico, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa

STONE PAVING DESIGN

Anfitheater of "Laboratorio Chimico", Lisbon

LABORATORIO DE CHIMICA

 "Laboratorio de Chimica", Escola Politécnica de Lisboa

MÃE D'ÁGUA

The main cornice at the Mãe d'Água in Lisbon. This was one of the main water reservoirs in town, terminating the huge aqueduct of Águas Livres. The simple detailing reveals the utilitarian nature of the building, its refinement the elegance of ages past. Under Lisbon's harsh light, the moldings become bold, shadows deep and planes of light disappear into the texture of the limestone.

CHIMNEY AT CALÇADA DA GLÓRIA

Not sure it's a chimney, but who cares - it's a glorious plaster pile peeking from behind the church of São Roque, in Lisbon.

HARDWARE

Casa de Santa Maria, Cascais, by the architect Raul Lino. Despite his practising of what seems like traditional Portuguese architecture, he is a recurring obsession of the modernist academic establishment, probably for what he preached in his books. Some will be written here about this in the future, as we have lots of pictures coming from our recent Lisbon - Cascais trip.