João Queiroz, House of the Arches, Rua António Aroso, unattributed photograph, n.d.

João Queiroz, a quiet architect

The less we rush to Europe in an express train, the more we journey in Portugal, by mailcoach, on horseback, reading the mountains, spelling out the panoramas. We are a people of poets: the fewer books, the fewer trains, the better.*

João Marcelino Queiroz worked in Porto between 1920, the completion date of his course in Civil Architecture, and 1982 when he died at the age of 90. He was a good man, sociable, republican, an army captain and owner of a shop of regional decorative items, in the Rua de Santa Catarina, where he spent a few hours of chat each day.
Professionally he was an isolated man. He always worked alone, designing all the parts of a project himself. The growing number of clients, especially during the 1940s, did not make his tiny office grow, but did increase his hours of tranquil work.
Without any moralistic or ideological preconceptions on the quality of the clients, their programmes and their tastes, or on the significance of languages, he designed, in the city of his birth, the Cine Teatro Olímpia, the Cinema Trindade, an unrealised design for the Cinema Batalha, and the Café Majestic, along the lines of late Romantic cafes. He constructed buildings, shops, churches, schools and an enormous quantity of housing.
Nothing is known of his travels abroad, but, in his library, now deposited with the Marques da Silva Foundation, thanks to the generous donation by his heirs, there is contained, in books, magazines and print collections, the information which will build our knowledge.

Text by Alexandre Alves Costa, May 2015

 

The signing of the donation contract by the heirs of João Queiroz (1892-1982) will take place on 18 May 2015, in the Café Majestic, followed by a talk by Professor and Architect Alexandre Alves Costa on João Queiroz, a quiet Architect. This initiative, organised by the Marques da Silva Foundation in partnership with the Café Majestic, is part of the programme for  International Museums Day.

Signing ceremony: leaflet
See Album

See Digital Archive
See Bibliographic Catalogue

* Alberto D´Oliveira, Palavras Loucas, Coimbra, F. França Amado, 1894.