Serralves House and Gardens, Study, 1931

Start of project 1925
Date of commencement of work 1925
Opening date 1943

Classification as a Building of Public Interest 1996 (Decree nr. 2/96, of 6 March)
Reclassification as National Monument 2012 (Decree nr. 31-G/2012, of 31 December)

The Serralves House and Gardens is one of Marques da Silva´s more singular works. The uniqueness of the overall work is, to a large extent, the result of the determining role played by its owner, the textile industrialist Carlos Alberto Cabral, throughout almost 20 years´ evolution of the many phases, advances and retreats of the project, between approximately 1925 and 1943.

Carlos Alberto Cabral was fascinated by French culture, owned a home in Biarritz, and was a frequent visitor to Paris and its home furnishing stores. This Parisian connection meant that Marques da Silva´s task was, to a large extent, one of reconciliation and coordination of the various French contributions. First of all came the interior designer Jacques Émile Ruhlmann who, in addition to supplying the furniture as ordered, proposed the reconfiguration of all the interior spaces in the house, with a view to obtaining the ideal setting for his furnishings. As the project gathered momentum, along came Charles Siclis who, in sporadic contributions, supplied designs for the exterior of the house. The third French architect to make a decisive contribution to the overall project was Jacques Gréber who, in 1932, consolidated the garden design, integrating a series of guidelines proposed by Marques da Silva, existing spaces (the lake) and new formal aspects in the garden. Ruhlmann died in 1933, halfway through the process, and his nephew Alfred Porteneuve took his place on the Serralves project, contributing substantially to the style of the house. Marques da Silva, who outlined the basic characteristics of the project and was responsible for all the detailed aspects of construction throughout the many years of the works, did not resist all these interferences but gave them a special coherence, expressed in the strength and quality of the work as a whole.

If the history of the construction of the Serralves House and Gardens is a complex puzzle, the resulting construction hides this complexity behind an outward serenity. In the 1930s the Rua de Serralves cut through an area of farmland in the street that linked the centre of Porto to the suburb of Matosinhos, and the original house reflected this world. On the other hand, the urbanisation of the Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa, contemporary with the construction of the House, encouraged the building, between Foz and Boavista, of luxury homes that followed more cosmopolitan standards. The end result of the Serralves work (it had originally been a farmhouse), was the epitome of this trend towards cosmopolitan representation.

The exterior appearance of the house is that of a modern work. This modernity, stemming from French culture, corresponded to the taste of a conservative society – with new-found wealth through industry – which sought to take part in a traditional aristocratic inheritance. This explains the axial layout of the Gardens, in the pleasing style of Versailles, but also explains the intense relationship between the interior spaces of the house and the outdoor spaces, in the pleasing style of modern hygiene. The pure expression of the facades, filled with flat planes and without decoration, does not stem from the use of a new technology of construction, but suggests the beginnings of modern architecture. The use of sophisticated heating systems means that domestic comfort is achieved within the configuration of space on a monumental scale. All these ambiguities are far from the pragmatism of the Beaux Arts tradition which characterises Marques da Silva´s earlier works. In the ambiguities of Serralves can be found the many ambiguities of the generations of architects who trained under Marques da Silva at the Escola de Belas Artes in Porto, and who transformed the landscape of the city and Portuguese architecture itself during the 20th century. The completion of Serralves, coming towards the end of the architect´s life, was also one of the closing points of his professional activity. Serralves occupies this unique position in the work of the architect, marking a transition between generations. This transition was made through the ability to negotiate with the client and, above all, with an astute agility in the management of multiple contributions to a single work.

(translated by Gill Stoker)

Bibliography
FERNANDES, João, CAMARD, Florence, Jacques Emile Ruhlmann e a fraternidade das artes, Porto, Fundação de Serralves, 2009.
DINIZ, Victor Beiramar (coord.), Catálogo Acervo Carlos Alberto Cabral Conde de Vizela, Porto, Fundação de Serralves, 2007.
TAVARES, André, Os fantasmas de Serralves, Porto, Dafne Editora, 2007.
DINIZ, Victor Beiramar (coord.), Serralves 1940, Porto, Fundação de Serralves, 2004.
CARDOSO, António, CASTRO, Laura (coord.), Casa de Serralves, retrato de uma época, Porto, Casa de Serralves, 1988.

Location
Porto, Rua de Serralves/Rua Dom João de Castro

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