Raúl Hestnes Ferreira Information System



Fashionable Stationery Store (remodelling), Lisbon, 1966/68 (demolished)
 

"He arrived at the Mediterranean via a long and winding route, from Porto to Finland, from the Moderns to Kahn, to Rome, to the universality of the compositional order”. (Alexandre Alves Costa)

"Neither "neo-realist" nor "post-modern", always out of fashion, neither a photo-architect nor a Mannerist in design, a realist without dryness and a formalist without glamour [...] one who has not put aside the formal research and the expressive will of architects such as Kahn, of course, but also Aalto, Ridolfi, Scarpa, Johnson and Rudolph, in the name of "communication" with the public, that is, in the name of tradition, be it "vernacular", classical or modernist." (Paulo Varela Gomes)
 

Raúl Hestnes Ferreira (1931-2018), a man of strong convictions, followed as an architect a unique and singular path, which Alexandra Saraiva situates "between European timelessness and North American classicism”. It suffices to mention the Albarraque house, the Beja Young People´s house, the Court and Library of Moita, the two houses of Queijas, the award-winning Avis Caixa Geral de Depósitos agency, the ISCTE facilities and the Faculty of Pharmacy Library of Lisbon University, some of his most iconic works, to understand his importance in the panorama of Contemporary Portuguese Architecture.

The documentary and professional collection of this architect, who died in February 2018, is made up of the documents produced in his Architecture Office between 1960 and 2017, relating to design and work processes, composed of written items, drawings and models, relating to a bibliographical set of books and periodicals on Architecture in general, published from the mid-20th century onwards, in which can also be found more specific topics such as Theory of Architecture, Architectural Details, construction Manuals, Equipment, Social Housing and Urbanism. In the now dismantled workshop at Largo da Graça in Lisbon were still the records of his own training, but also of his teaching activity, highlights being a collection of slides, key elements in the classes taught in the different educational establishments he passed through and where he influenced several generations of architects who studied under him to design and to understand Architecture: Lisbon High School of Fine Arts, Cooperativa Árvore in Porto, University of Coimbra, ISCTE and the Lusófona University in Lisbon.

With the exception of some pieces of furniture designed by him, donated to MUDE, and the monographs in his Architecture Library, donated to the Lusófona University, was this collection donated by Raúl Hestnes Ferreira´s heirs to the Marques da Silva Foundation. An impressive set of documents which reflect almost 60 years of continuous work in the practice of Architecture. 

See: Digital Archive.

(translated by Gill Stoker)

Donation (2018): Five fingers of a hand

Biographical summary of Raúl Hestnes Ferreira

In June 2020, the Marques da Silva Foundation has a wide-ranging treatment project underway of this collection. There are thousands of records which will be cleaned and reconditioned. It is a fundamental step in allowing new actions to be developed, ensuring the safeguarding of the original documentation.

See pictures of the process: album #1 and Vídeo #1