In this doctoral thesis, architect Luciano Margotto, advised by Prof. Dr. Mônica Junqueira de Camargo, presents five lessons from architecture: Austerity, Generosity, Freedom, Public, and Spatiality. In his work, the author investigates the works of architects such as Carlos Millan, Marcello Fragelli, Eduardo Souto de Moura, Oscar Niemeyer, Vilanova Artigas, Fábio Penteado, Lucio Costa, Lina Bo Bardi, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Brasil Arquitetura, Gabriel Guarda, Martín Correa, and Alvaro Siza. Below is the abstract of the thesis defended at FAUUSP in 2016.
"This work stems from a theoretical inquiry from the perspective of design—that is, from the standpoint of those in the position of, so to speak, producing it, addressing the chain of decisions and operations that bring it into being. It is based on the principle that aesthetics constitutes both philosophical and empirical reflection in an inseparable and complementary manner. It investigates concepts revolving around values—whether contemporary or not—of aesthetics, art, literature, and other fields of knowledge applied to architecture. At the same time, it examines works that are mostly Brazilian and belong to what has commonly been called the Modern Movement; however, it includes significant exceptions to the chosen group. Avoiding the reduction of these works into rigid frameworks, and of ideas into closed programs, it insists on the uniqueness and multiplicity of each one to establish a structure in which the chapters are intertwined. As a result, the lessons engage in dialogue with one another, and the analyses build bridges between works, as well as between architects and other professionals, delineating what architecture can be. In this way, it proposes five lessons grounded in architecture, shaped by readings developed through poetics—constructions of language supported by the field of making. These lessons are essentially positive, yet bound to the fundamental idea of simultaneity rather than linearity, reiterating continuities while suggesting new perspectives for the contemporary debate."
