Manuel Aires Mateus
“On the Question“
Monday, April 1st, 5:00p.m. est
EMPAC Concert Hall
Rensselaer School of Architecture continues its Spring 2024 Lecture Series Monday, April 1st, 5:00 p.m., at EMPAC with the lecture “On the Question” by Manuel Aires Mateus.
Manuel Aires Mateus is a Portuguese architect, operating between practice and academia since graduating as an architect in 1986 at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Lisbon. In 1988, he established Aires Mateus e Associados, with his brother Francisco Aires Mateus.
Since 1986, he has collaborated with various universities, including Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Oslo Architecture School, University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture, and the University of Navarre’s School of Architecture in Pamplona. He has been a professor at Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa since 1998 and at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland, since 2001.
Aires Mateus e Associados explores the primary role of architecture- to facilitate life itself. Through internationally acclaimed projects, they champion the freedom of architectural expression, emphasizing the purity of form and space. Their work is marked by a highly sculptural elegance and serene tranquility, serving as a benchmark in contemporary architecture. Their projects interrogate the value of void, the presence of solids, and material relations to levels of transparency to amplify the authenticity of spatial experience.
The studio’s work spans multiple countries, operating primarily from its base in Lisbon, Portugal. Many of their projects have been featured in publications such as A+A Architecture Guide, El Croquis, Arquitectura Viva, GA, A+U, 2G, C3, d’Arco, TC Cuadernos, DOMUS, and AMAG.
Aires Mateus has exhibited widely, notably at the Venice Architecture Biennale (Italy, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2021), Architecture Biennale Villa et Culture in Rabat (Morocco, 2018), Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré (CCCOD) in Tours (France, 2015), Milan Design Week with the installation “White in the City” (Italy, 2017), Chicago Architecture Biennial with “Ruins in Time,” and recently at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (South Korea, 2021) with the project “TO INHABIT.”
We look forward to seeing you at this lecture.