PROLOGUE BY VICTOR NEVES

PROLOGUE BY VICTOR NEVES "Revisiting time is almost always a rewarding exercise. Revisiting time through writing is not only rewarding, but also fascinating. Because the written word is an osmosis of time that, at a given time, stabilizes and retains ideas, which are deposited, protected, waiting to be recovered. / In a debate that took place in the distant year of 2003 at Casa dos Dias da Água, in Lisbon, as part of the “Múltiplas Percepções” cycle, which was curated by Gonçalo Furtado and where I myself participated, together with José Bártolo, Vítor Silva, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Grande, Bruno Gil, there was a mention of an over-stylization that assaulted the diversity (which was only apparent, admittedly) of contemporary architecture. Somehow, a kind of crisis of ideas in architecture was recognized. / Today, on the contrary, we live in one of the most challenging periods in architecture since the heroic 20's of the 20th century. Global, emerging challenges, which, however, are accompanied by an enormous technological and scientific source. / Perhaps due to the alleged crisis of ideas referred above, this debate also mentioned an interesting “frontier” crossing of Architecture with other disciplines - with the arts, in particular- which allowed for “contaminations”, “nomadism” “transmissions” “migrations”. The question then was whether the critique (and theory) of art and architecture would not be a simple and mere mediation or an ephemeral confrontation of Culture (more or less erratic) with political power. Today, on the contrary, these crossings have weakened, being replaced by a mediatic affirmation of architecture that has gained prominence in the media and on the net. And yet, faced with climate and environmental problems, we are currently experiencing a period of true EMERGENCY, which, as mentioned above, implies a global challenge where collaboration with science, with producers of new technologies, with new currents of Philosophy, will be vital for the survival of ARCHITECTURE itself, as a discipline of knowledge, with artistic and social value and with a praxis to which it is closely linked. / On the other hand, we will need a new “Critique of Criticism” that also involves praxis and that also involves a critique of political powers. And this last aspect is relevant because it is the political power that is demanded, in the first instance, to take the necessary decisions for the solution of the EMERGENCY in which we live. It is the political power that is pressured by the militant activism of ecological movements with increasingly strong political ramifications and that believes it can solve the climate EMERGENCY with more or less noisy public demonstrations. Worrying illusion…. / The emergency demands from architects and from those who write and theorize about architecture, clear ideas and clear proposals, scientifically and technically supported and, above all, fast proposals because they are urgent. And they are not compatible with "political correctness". / The most powerful mental tyranny in the free world is political correctness (Doris Lessing). Political correctness is turning into a new form of fundamentalism that is affecting everyday language (Umberto Eco). Being politically correct usually involves imposing a restriction on what others say” (or can say) I add. The political correctness is a strategy to control language - and, therefore, of thinking. / Rereading Gonçalo Furtado's texts, which are now being published again in this book, allows us to update time and rethink its contents. The titles of the texts published in Arqa magazine from 2001 to 2023 (the year in which the magazine ended its publication) are themselves revealing of a continuous and always updated reflection on architecture and all the phenomena that are associated with it, since the beginning millennium to the present: -“O imaginário utópico do pós-guerra e a sua herança pós-moderna” In: Arq/a, N.1 ; - “A viragem dos anos 60-70 e o reconhecimento de novas atitudes” In: Arq/a, N.61; - “Rumo a uma estética arquitectónica evolutiva: Interesses tecno-científicos actuais, complexidade, e a iniciais permissões do emergente” In: Arq.a, N.53; - “Desafios na arquitectura actual” In: Arq/a, N.62 ; - “Redes, fluxos e interações expandidas: A sobrevivência da cidade e o ethos global” In: Arq/a, N.74 ; -“ Modelação e manufactura: modelação geométrica, manufactura e construção assistida por computador” (com D. Aguiar) In: Arq/a, N.69; -“Flexibilidade e mobilidade: a necessidade de ponderar a condição contemporânea e um resvalar para a política” In: Arq/a, N.77; “Evolução de paradigmas no século XX: da conservação urbana à reabilitação urbana” (com R. Macedo) In: Arq/a, N.82-83; - “Revisitando matérias: a diluição de distâncias na pós-modernidade digital (1999- 2009)” In: Arq/a, N.84-85; - “A ficção tardo-moderna: derivações pós-modernas e o nosso transitório presente” In: Arq/a, N.100, - “Rural e urbano: da urbanização do rural à ruralização do urbano”(com R. Macedo) In: Arq/a, N.101; - “Arquitectura e cultura: arquitectura portuguesa face à cultura global” (com E. Lopes) In: Arq/a, N.105; - are some of the titles that demonstrate this continuous critical approach over time, of different themes that followed one another in the international panorama of architecture, always updating themes and ways of seeing and thinking. The Arqa magazine, which I directed in two different periods, benefited greatly from the collaboration of Gonçalo Furtado and from his critical, intellectual interpretation of the meteoric evolution of trends that succeeded each other, from the beginning of the 21st century in architecture to the present day and which are not the “isms” of the second half of the 20th century, but fleeting trends that run over each other in the digital space that dominates our days. We currently live in a time of hyperstimulation of thoughts and images coming from the digital. This creates “emotional beggars”. The emotional beggar lives on stimuli, but cannot satisfy itself in the vortex of the information he receives. So it needs a lot of stimuli, fast to get crumbs of pleasure. It is no longer the hedonistic individualism that Gilles Lipovetsky spoke of in the 1990s, but a generation that feeds on “soundbites” of instant culture. The critical and theoretical work of Gonçalo Furtado is (will be) , I am sure, in a counter cycle, in relation to this “instantaneous” culture and this is comforting, because it always intends to be comprehensive , connecting the wide world that is architecture and the work of architects nowadays. / “We have, above all, to learn two things: to learn how extraordinary the world is and to learn to be wide enough inside, for the whole world to enter”. (Agostinho da Silva, “The Last Conversation” 11th Edition Casa das Letras, 2006)."