The Casa das Histórias Paula Rego was designed by the architect
Eduardo Souto de Moura. The building makes use of certain aspects
of the region's historical architecture, which is here
reinterpreted in a contemporary way. It can be immediately
recognised thanks to its two pyramid-shaped towers and the
red-coloured concrete used in its construction.
The land and trees which previously existed at the site are
incorporated as fundamental elements, while four wings, of varying
heights and sizes, make up the building. The building itself is
subdivided into rooms which lead into one another and are laid out
around the higher central room which houses the temporary
exhibition. The building's interior has 750m2 of exhibition space,
on top of the technical and service areas, and is decorated in
neutral shades and paved with the blue-grey marble of Cascais. The
building also houses a shop, a café which opens onto a verdant
garden and an auditorium with 200 seats.
The building's design is fully in keeping with the artist's wishes,
and it was Paul Rego herself who was responsible for the choice of
architect. It meets all the requirements for a museum and its
various functions, without forgetting the need to give visitors a
warm welcome.
"With the Casa das Histórias, it can be said that Eduardo Souto de
Moura has adopted and almost 'regionalist' approach, distancing
himself from the modern abstractionism that has been a dominant
feature of his work. It is, however, an uncritical regionalism,
that avoids the sense of 'resistante' which lay behind other
attempts at the approach in Portugal in the 1980s. In this museum
created for Cascais, Souto de Moura associates certain formal
devices with a legacy of architectural composition, adopting
specific formulas for the building's insertion in the surrounding
area as well as a use of scale which can be easily contextualised
in a very specific type of geography. Its close proximity to the
work of Raul Lino is therefore set in a "Southern" landscape,
without resorting to any unnecessary decorative or picturesque
frills."1
1 O Arquitectar das Casas Simples, Ana Vaz
Milheiro, in Casa das Histórias Paula Rego - Arquitectura, 2009
"With this museum, Souto de Moura develops a form of "modern-day
architecture" without, in fact, repeating any of the "old models" -
in keeping with the ideas defended by Aldo Rossi in his scientific
autobiography - evoking timeless archetypes from urban iconography:
towers, lighthouses, silos and chimneys, like the ones that define
the profile of the Palácio de Sintra. It is therefore not
surprising, if one continues the "analogy", that, when describing
this museum, Souto de Moura also mentioned the pronounced roofs of
Raul Lino's palaces, or the idea of an "inhabited chimney", evoking
that of the kitchen in the monastery of Alcobaça. In fact, in its
best interpretation, the Casa das Histórias can be seen as a
"historicist" project, a condition that will certainly surprise
Souto de Moura's most faithful followers and confound his harshest
critics."2
2 O Palácio Escarlate, Nuno Grande, in Casa das Histórias Paula
Rego - Arquitectura, 2009
Architect Eduardo Souto de Moura
Project designed in 2005
Building stage 2008-2009
Built area 2650m2
Project coordinators António Sérgio Koch and Ricardo
Prata
Assistants Bernardo Monteiro, Diogo Guimarães,
Junko Imamura, Kirstin Schätzel, Manuel Vasconcelos, Maria Luís
Barros, Pedro G. Oliveira, Rita Alves, Sofia Torres Pereira, Susana
Monteiro
Structural Engineers AFAconsult
Hydraulic Engineers AFAconsult
Electrical Engineers RS - Raul Serafim and
Associates
Mechanical Engineer PQF - Paulo Queirós de
Faria