São Paolo: Casa Martirani (Stop 7 of 8)

“Nature is the wellspring of so much of our awe, and human beings have been aspiring to bring this feeling into the built environment- meaning anything that is human-made, from buildings to cities- since the earliest drawings decorated the walls of our caves.” Dacher Keltner, as quoted in Your Brain on Art

“Experiencing awe enables someone to change their view of themselves and their place in the world.” Beau Lotto, as quoted in Your Brain on Art

Awe is defined as “a strong feeling of deep respect, wonder, and amazement, often mixed with a little bit of fear or nervous dread” – makes me chuckle about the dread part. The dread being yet again completely thwarted by a lack of education about this incredible Brazilian architect Artigas. At this point on stop 7 of 8 (with stop 8 really being the actual killer) we’re on the 3rd Artigas (the others being Faculty of Architecture and Casa Domschke). Each of his buildings is steeped in the political history of oppression and resistance through design thinking.

As seen in other buildings by him, the singular roof wrapping over the building as a way to protect those from prying spying eyes did not constrain him, but rather in that requirement, he pursued new ideas under that cover. I kept hanging my head out to catch every single detail as I just could not visualize in my head how he was doing this structurally.

But then something miraculous- the hand drawn plans and elevations were offered to me- “would this be of interest to you?” I mean talk about awe- awe for being able to visit such an exceptional space and awe for the generosity of our host to share something so special. When you draw something by hand especially by pen, there’s no room for “tweaks” – a process that AIs have enabled (creating some bad habits I think) – you certainly can trace and retrace but there’s something about an idea that is actually a “one shot” that the human mind can hold that an AI never will be able to. As if I didn’t seem weird enough, I wish I could have hugged these drawings in gratitude because words could not express that enough.

Saying all of the above, I think this would have been an interesting place to live in. The kitchen was part of the open layout- a new construct coming out of mid century but still tucked away at the back of the house. It was small but light and airy- definitely closely planned to the traditional location of the servants quarters (no playing with messages for regarding the servants quarters here unlike at the Luciana Brito). But you can see from above that much of the common space has little direct natural light and so I do wonder how this place was lit at night.

Floor to ceiling windows that opened from the bottom- you could literally just step outside. Wonderful engineering at work.

To make a curve of concrete you must form the shape in the mold- what is the wold made of- usually wood. We experience the world of things that a made. The process of making is left reveals in this house- you can see the marking left in the concrete itself- an honesty of expression that I can guess was intentional. We hide nothing that we need not have to. Working in digital privacy at the time, this building is a reminder of how important privacy is a basic human right and is more at risk than ever. Remind yourself that this is not to be taken for granted- people like Artigas stood for this right and it is our job to carry this forward.

p.s. After posting this I realize I completely missed talking about the front entrance. I believe its structural…