Tensioned cable installation transforms a monastery courtyard in Vila Nova de Gaia

Save this picture!

When Le Corbusier visited Mallorca in 1932, he recorded his impressions in a notebook, which is now kept in the archives of the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris. The pages of this notebook, titled Carnet C 10, clearly reflect Le Corbusier's interests during this private trip. However, they also shed light on the role of drawing in his thinking more generally, as Xavier Monteys reflected in his lecture for the series Author's Lessons - Le Corbusier and Drawing, titled Drawings in a Notebook. A close look at the sketches from the Mallorca trip reveals that the series is framed by two drawings of Barcelona, made from a boat at the beginning and end of his journey, between which he recorded various objects.

According to Xavier Monteys, if we could join the pages sequentially and then connect the two ends—the two drawings made from the boat—we would embark on a journey with no beginning or end, a panorama (a tool Le Corbusier himself used repeatedly). This idea inspired the installation in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, which served as the stage for the lecture. 

Save this picture!

It seemed natural to set up the installation in the circular cloister of the Serra do Pilar Monastery in the Porto region—one of the most remarkable works of classical architecture in Europe, built in the 16th century on the hills of São Nicolau de Vila Nova, opposite the city of Porto. This was not only due to the shape of the cloister, which is highly suited for a panoramic installation, but also because the number of bays between columns corresponds to the number of pages to be reproduced in large format.

Save this picture!

Around one thousand meters of white cable were used in the installation, contrasting with the stone like a giant version of the “cat's cradle” game we all played as children. The cables form a stellar shape composed of twelve triangles inspired by the geometry of the columns and the ceiling of the ambulatory. Hanging from the roof, they support a slender circular aluminum bar, creating a smaller concentric circle from which the enlarged drawings were suspended. These were printed at eye level, meant to be viewed from the center of the installation during the lecture. The structural mass was calculated in relation to the load it supports, ensuring the catenary curve of the cables remained unaffected, offsetting the effect of gravity and giving the installation a sense of weightlessness.

Save this picture!

At the end of the lecture, the drawings were collected and exhibited in the chapel, where a screen repeated part of the lesson as a provocation. The cables, meanwhile, remained in the cloister. This linear structure—a vestige and memory of the scaffolding that supported the event—has now acquired a new life, a new scale, and universality, acting as the expression of a ritual. From the cloister's ambulatory, one moves into a space whose ceiling is merely suggested by the cables—a threshold, a transitional space between a covered interior and an open exterior—before finally reaching the open air. The characteristic gradation of the cloister's structure is thus extended as its geometry – the deep structure of its form – expands centripetally.

Save this picture!

Save this picture!

PROJECT CREDITS

• Project name: CARNET C10 - Installation at Serra do Pilar Monastery
• Architects:  Pedro Matos Gameiro, Marta Sequeira, and Carlos Machado e Moura
• Location:  Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
• Year: 2017 
• Other participants: Paulo Dias, João Varela (collaborators), Fernando Rodrigues - ARA, Lda (consultancy), and Cátia Cunha Pimentel (video)
• Text provided by Pedro Matos Gameiro, Marta Sequeira, Carlos Machado e Moura