This poetic and minimalist visual anthology presents a 10 year retrospective of AIRES MATEUS
design studios at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland.
Including 100 black & white and color images of largescale models built by students of AIRES MATEUS, these models are curated to create a family portrait. Each expertly staged model is pictured with the essential schemes necessary to understand the volumes portrayed. Award-winning brothers and business partners Francisco and Manuel Aires Mateus’ many years of experience in pedagogy and the use of models in practice are brought together in a manifesto which precedes the anthology of images. The importance of the model in the formation of architectural ideas and throughout the design process, as well as its potency as a standalone statement are highlighted.
The evocative photographs in this book reveal abstract spaces produced by artistic interpretations of light, volume and materiality.
Francisco Aires Mateus graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Technical University of Lisbon, or FA / UTL, in 1987. He taught in 2002 and 2005 at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He has his own studio in Lisbon, Portugal and collaborates with his brother, Manuel. The studio has a portfolio that includes both residential and commercial projects. The designs focus on volumes and the visual play between various shapes as well as the void and empty spaces that surround them, but also on light and how it affects the completed structures or interiors. Among many awards and exhibitions, Francisco, with his brother, has also represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale in 2010, and taught all over the world.
Manuel Aires Mateus graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Technical University of Lisbon, or FA / UTL, in 1986. He taught in 2002 and 2005 at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He has his own studio in Lisbon, Portugal and collaborates with his brother, Francisco. And has collaborated architect Gonçalo Byrne. The studio, Aires Mateus, has a portfolio that includes both residential and commercial projects. The designs focus on volumes and the visual play between various shapes as well as the void and empty spaces that surround them, but also on light and how it affects the completed structures or interiors. Among many awards and exhibitions, Manuel, with his brother, has also represented Portugal at the Venice Biennale in 2010, and taught all over the world.
