Francisco Laranjo
Henrique Marques and Rui Dinis
Fernando Jorge
Architect
«An architect has no age, he has ideas», he says, refusing to disclose how many springs his body has seen. But then he adds that he has been «burning the midnight oil for 27 years». This is how Fernando Jorge is. A timeless man, who has left many of his works wherever he goes, and even in the places where he has never physically been. Every day he is planning the dream of others and also his. One of them is more than come true: he is an architect body and soul. The decision was made after the April 25 revolution, when he realised that drawing alone was not enough for him. He looked at the era of social progress and married it with urban progress, and for the sake of the nation and Braga, his city, he became a shaper of the ‘emptiness’ of others. Enticing them and letting himself be charmed to build a whole new world.
What was the work that affected you the most during your professional life and why?
Each work has its meaning because it is interprets manifestations of desires and dreams of people and institutions. I will give you, as examples, the architectural rehabilitation of the majority of the buildings in Bom Jesus do Monte and Sameiro, in Braga; manor houses, around the Minho region, including the Palácio da D. Chica and, at present, the ‘barracks’ of Nossa Senhora da Abadia. In terms of modern work, I would pick out the Hotel Meliã de Braga, ISAVE, in Póvoa de Lanhoso and some houses, from the many that I designed.
Before being an architect you were a teacher. But after becoming an architect you never stopped teaching. What values do you pass on to those you spend your time with every day?
Humility, Seriousness and Passion constitute the trilogy of durability. If it does not fit into these three fundamental aspects, then architecture becomes free of truth and meaning in time/space.
«Every project is a life story to be told!»
Which spaces do people favour most inside their houses nowadays?
I believe the social part. The bedrooms have lost importance because they are simply for spending the night, while the social part allows a close relationship between the people who make up the family household and even in sharing time with friends. There is less and less time for getting together because everyone is busy during most of the day in their working life and often the time for affection is reduced to sharing glances during tasks. The kitchen has lost the connotation that it had and has become an integrated space in the living room, precisely to bring people ‘closer together’. The house has now become more humanised, more cosy, unlike in the recent past, when it was understood as authoritarian and silent.
Is doing a project now more demanding than it was a few years ago?
What differs in chronological time are not the projects, but rather how demanding people are, because they are much more informed and aware of what they want. Personally, I have never had problems with clients, because I have always tried to exceed the expectations when it comes to understanding the project. I never went ahead with a project without the client being well aware of the scale, functionality and proportion of the proposed spaces, that is to say, I have always tried to guide them to a set dimension, so that, from that moment on, they could interpret the project as a stimulus for a full experience. Every project is a life story to be told! Because every life is different... therefore, the projects are different...
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Editorial Team
P.
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