MODERNE HEATER

The floor heater at Casa de Serralves, in Porto, is a piece of sculpture in polished brass erupting out of the marble floor. You can almost believe it could actually move up and down, complete with the top floor piece still attached. As always, perfect design and execution in Porto's greatest gesamtkunstverk, with the Ruhlmann interiors beautifully complementing Marques da Silva's architecture. Pity it didn't last like that to our days, and the now spartan white-painted interiors are somewhat used for performances or installations, but the hard surfaces and fixtures still remain as testament to less utilitarian and pseudo-minimalist times.

BALCONY CORNER

The multiplication of different materials harmoniously blended at this corner in Régua is staggering. Plaster walls, stone balcony-cornices, painted corrugated sheet metal siding, clay tiles, wood trim and wrought iron railings.

DOORBELL

Private House, Rua do Rosário, Porto.

DECO DOOR HANDLE 2

And another door handle in Serralves. This time between outside and the dining room, where the table was indeed designed by Ruhlmann for the Count of Vizela.

DECO DOOR HANDLE

Serralves, a door handle over a mirrored door inside a dressing room. Did we mention Ruhlmann worked here? So did Marques da Silva, whose time is coming for a post or two.

PLASTER TEXTURE

Garagem Passos Manuel, Porto  (1937 - Architect Mário Abreu)

GUTTER BRACKET

Mercado do Bolhão, Porto

TRIUMPH OF THE BAROQUE

This is the bigger sister of the previously posted fountain in Guarda. And how much bigger! This fantastical concoction of mythological beings dominates the top of a hill overlooking the city. The architecture seems practically pulverized in mermaids's tails, wavy capitals and tentacle-scrolls, but nonetheless there is a strong design structure underneath. As mentioned this was part of an estate which disappeared long ago and then was integrated into a monotonous fascist piazza/garden.

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.

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.

MAYBE BETTER DAYS WILL COME

Statue at the church-convent complex of São Francisco, Porto.

FLUORESCENT LIGHT FIXTURE

In a modest café in Porto, the light fixtures are still relics from an Art Deco past. More will come from said café in the future.

REALLY OLD PORTUGUESE STUFF

São Pedro das Águias near Tabuaço, Douro. Facing the river Távora, in front of steep cliffs stands this little Romanesque church with ancient hermit caves around. The entry is so close to the cold rock that it is impossible to photograph. Decorated with monsters and allegorical animals, which keep chaos out of the inner peace inside. Except for this, the details throughout are of bare simplicity and express minimalist functionality.

SUMMER TIME!

Palácio do Conde do Bolhão, Porto. The "count" or his decorator had a perverse sense of humour and incorporated a couple of tomatoes and a cucumber as a motif for his cornice, in one of the beads. In Portuguese the phallic references are literal. Above, a repeating fork and spoon in another reed sound innocent by comparison, and still above a frieze of grapes mixed with pineapples makes no mistakes: hospitality together with plentifulness. One can only imagine the parties this place must have seen, and its signs are immortalized in stucco.

CORNICE WITH DOORS

This stucco frieze has French doors as part of the decoration, complete with arches, rustication and keystones. As if a mini-façade was inside the salon. The joints confirm this was a stock motif.
Palácio do Conde do Bolhão, Porto.

CORNICE AND HANDRAIL

Palacete Pinto Leite,  Porto

ERNESTO KORRODI - HOUSE IN LEIRIA II

EXTERIOR WALL TILES, EDGE AND CORNER

Marinha Grande.