Rua das Carmelitas, Four Seasons Building, n.d.

Start of project 1905

The Four Seasons Building, whose name derives from the four representative reliefs crowning the four pilasters which characterise its elevation, is a typical example of the formal features that Marques da Silva introduced into the urban design of Porto. Built in the Rua das Carmelitas (Carmelite Street), where at the beginning of the 20th century experimentation was taking place with various transformative shapes and sizes in the conventions of constructive practice (of which the Lello & Irmão bookshop, by Xavier Esteves, is the most flagrant example), Marques da Silva returned to the use of granite to avoid any disruption of texture with the neighbouring buildings. But, instead of a composition in three equal parts as was the existing trend in Porto, he chose to make the central entrance to the stairs narrower, and widened the two outer sections, thereby giving more space for the shop windows. This form reflects a new programme, the offices above destined for a growing service economy and the large shop windows below displaying industrial products, responding to a new market logic and forming a relationship with the urban public. This accounts for the use of a metal joist at the top of the level´s slab, allowing the vertical pilasters to free themselves from the horizontal constraints from floor to floor and reach across the  current height on a monumental scale. The top two floors, balanced above the street, dramatise the thickness of the stonework of the facade, suggesting that the shape of the building comes from the excavation of a large mass, in beaux-arts style, and not from the constructive superposition of a trilithon system.
This subtlety of composition gives the building the character of a large mass treated sculpturally, and this character contrasts profoundly with the style of its neighbours.
This mechanism of creating contrast would later be explored by the architect and by many of his disciples, permanently transforming the style of the city.

(translated by Gill Stoker)

Bibliography
CARDOSO, António, O arquitecto José Marques da Silva e a arquitectura no Norte do País na primeira metade do séc. XX, Porto, Faup-publicações, 1997.

Location
Porto, Rua das Carmelitas, 100
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