There is something to learn from Porto.

I visited again this summer. Porto. On that occasion, I continued to go around architectural objects of which its citizens, and not only them, can be very proud. Walking is one of my favorite activities, even the strong sun doesn't stop me from enjoying it. I don't recall ever once, walking around Porto, hearing drivers use their sirens, let alone honking aggressively (or maybe that's just my afterthought, for which there is a reason). The facilities I wanted to see are mostly not in the strict center of the city. These are the works of architects Alvaro Siza and Eduardo Soto de More, portraits of modern Porto. Their buildings are some of the faces of the modern identity of this city.

Siza and Soto de Mora studied architecture at the College of Fine Arts, from which the Faculty of Architecture was separated, where they also taught. When I visited the campus of that college, I saw roosters walking freely on the lawn, which I found very endearing. In Aleišo Street, very quiet and close to the river Doro, in building number 53 - also Siza's facility - there are offices of both architects. And it is white, like most of his other works. In turn, Soto de Mora designed the building with the apartments they live in (work on the two buildings took place largely simultaneously). Those symmetrical gestures indicate mutual respect and friendship.

Collaboration is another dimension of the relationship between these architects. During the seventies, Soto de Mora acquired an architectural practice as an associate of Siza. They worked with other architects on the Sao Victor project. Perched high above the river, the housing complex looks like an acropolis of the poor. One of Siza's projects – related to Sao Victor and in which his younger colleague also participated – is the Bosa neighborhood. They continued to collaborate even after Soto de Mora established his bureau. Siza wrote about the cultural center Kaza das Artes, one of the first projects of Sota de More. In addition to other materials, he used granite for that building, which he will do in other projects as well. Northern Portugal is rich in granite and it is typical for the architecture of Porto. This stone gives it a high degree of visual uniformity.

photo: from a private archive

In every street of Porta there is something that can capture the attention of a person sensitive to questions of architectural expression. I often walked along Avenue Boavista. It is more than five kilometers long and next to the place where it starts - the square and the roundabout known as Boavišta Rotunda - there is the Kaza da Musica metro station, recognizable by the simple and striking circular openings on its ceiling, which match the shape of the nearby square. Soto de Mora, in charge of designing the stations of the Porto metro system, also signs this one. The Burgo Tower both physically and aesthetically surpasses the buildings in its immediate surroundings. Other Soto de More buildings on that avenue, as well as most of those related to her that Siza designed independently or co-authored, are named after her, such as the Boavista building and the Quinta da Avenida residential complex. It can be said that a walk down this street is enough to see the achievements of Portuguese and European architecture at the turn of the last century.

I usually came to the Seralves Museum, a small structure stretched out among the trees of the large park on the edge of which it is located, along Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa. In that luxurious street, which starts from Boavište, is the house of the painter Armanda Pasoš, also Siza's work. When I arrived at the cultural center of Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira, I first encountered one face of that object, Sota de More. It consists of an "empty" rectangle, and I connected that abstract form with the street facade of Armanda Pasoš's house. Those two clean surfaces – one gray, the other white – seem to communicate with each other. I think about that while I have a silent "conversation" with these objects. Seen from the street, some of the works of these architects are hidden behind the walls or just peeking out above them.

Both mentioned avenues lead to the Atlantic. Boavista seems to flow into it, while Mal Gómez da Costa extends to the core of the part of Porto called Fosh de Doro (the word from which it got its name means "estuary" in Portuguese, given that it is located where the river flows into the ocean) and some of the residential buildings designed by Soto de Mora. There are sandy beaches on that coast of Porto. Siza ends the text, one of the titles of which is "The Doro River explains the city of Porto" with the following words: "The visitor can also go out to discover the city, to get lost in the streets of Porto, among its people, perhaps the best option for those who want to get to know it."

Visitors to Porto who are not averse to long walks can, of course, also use the metro. Those who like to travel long distances on foot should get on or off at its stations. One of them is Sao Bento - entrusted to Siza - on whose walls, lined with square ceramic tiles in pastel colors, there are also drawings by this architect and artist. It is indeed a great responsibility to design and build in the center of Porto, and it should not be lacking even in relation to its entire territory. It seems that this city, with its architectural heritage, obliges anyone who wants to add a building to it to respect the expected level. You can learn from Porto. In relation to the architects who were educated in that city and spent their whole life or most of it there, it is not only a matter of obligation, but also of getting used to the fine architectural and natural environment.

The word "architecture" should perhaps sometimes be written in the plural. On this track, Soto de Mora notes in the entry "Porto, architecture and its school": "The city and the territory are not uniform; that is their nature. Instead, there are architectures that stand out, that have consolidated to the point that they have reached the status of models, as such, portable. Porto is no exception." Not all Size and Sota de More facilities in Porto fit into this article (not to mention their projects that were not implemented). A proper presentation of all of them would require an entire book, which shows the true contribution of these architects to their city.

I did not meet Siza and Soto de Mora only through their facilities. In order to get to know an architect, it is essential to meet his works. However, he can say something about his objects that their observer does not see (buildings are "silent"). This time, I had the privilege of speaking with Soto de Mora. It was also a sunny day and, passing the hydrangeas in the courtyard of the building on Aleisho Street, I headed for its first floor (Sisa's office is on the second). The conversations with Siza and Soto de Mora were not limited exclusively to architectural objects, and not even to those I observed in Porto. The opportunity to meet them personally and over coffee to ask what interests me about their works is a truly unique experience for me. That statement may seem like a cliché, but that doesn't negate its truth.