Nadir Afonso, the acclaimed painter architect, disciple of Le Corbusier, passed away on December 11.

DOCOMOMO International wishes to express its condolences to his family and friends.

Image: From the left to the right: O lek Kujawsky, Iánnis Zenákis and Nadir Afonso (with their wives), at thetim e they worked on the construction site of the Unité d´Habitation de Marseille, 1950. Photographer unknown.

Text by João Cepeda on Docom om o Journal 47 – 2012/2:

Nadir Afonso: the Painter (who Graduated) Architect 
From his Collaboration with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, to his Works in Chaves and the Abandonment of Architecture
By João Cepeda1

Nadir Afonso, one of the m ost well known (and recognized) Portuguese painters, has dedicated a great deal ofhis life to practicing the profession from which he graduated as an architect–a facet that is still com m onlyunknown by the great public, as it was just slightly studied by the history of contem porary PortugueseArchitecture.Regarding his career, it is to particularly note the periods he spent abroad, working with Le Corbusier andNiem eyer. These influential authors of the Modern Movem ent gave him the opportunity to participate in variousprojects that m arked the history of architecture. This singular international phase m anifestly resulted in Moderninfluences that are visible in the work he later built in Chaves.Nadir Afonso ended up abandoning the profession, since when he has dedicated him self to Painting on a fulltime basis.

1938-1946 The Formation Period
The “choice” of Architecture–Porto
Despite having always revealed a natural predisposition to em brace painting, Nadir Afonso ended up enrollingon a course of Architecture at the old School of Fine Arts in Porto (1938), advised by a m em ber of the schoolstaff. At the School of Fine Arts, Nadir Afonso found a quite open clim ate which, under the influence of ProfessorCarlos Ram os, m arked a decisive m om ent in the reform ulation of teaching Architecture in Portugal. Even so, hisdilem m a between being a painter or an architect never dim inished. Throughout the whole of his graduationcourse, Nadir Afonso always persisted in designing Architecture to be seen and appreciated as if it were Painting,i.e., practicing architecture through the eyes and the soul of a painter.

1946-1960 The International Phase
In the studios of Le Corbusier and O scar Niem eyer – Paris, Rio de Janeiro and São PauloThen, upon conclusion of his studies, what becom es outstanding is his rich and fascinating career abroad,m ainly in collaboration with two of the m ost influent m asters of the Modern Movem ent: first with Le Corbusier inParis (“Atelier des Bâtisseurs–ATBAT”, 1946-48 and 1950-51), of who he becam e a great friend, and then withO scar Niem eyer in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo (1951-54). Thus, he had the unique opportunity to participatewith these two renowned architects in som e rem arkable projects of the history of 20th century Modernarchitecture, like the Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles (1945-52), the Claude et Duval Factory in Saint-Dié (1946-51) and the project for the Exhibition com m em orating the 4th centenary of the city of São Paulo in theIbirapuera Park (1951-54), am ong others. It is also worth em phasizing his participation in the finalinvestigation team of Le Corbusier’s fam ous Modulor–a system designed to find harm ony in architecturalcom positions. This opportunity gave him the advantage of getting a great proxim ity to one of his greatpassions–Geom etry. This proxim ity decisively contributed to the developm ent of his rem arkable expertise inm anipulating the proportions and relations am ong geom etric shapes and figures.In Paris, he also collaborated with som e of his form er friends and colleagues of the ATBAT, the architectsGeorges Candilis, Alexis Josic and Shadrach Woods (1954-60), m ainly in various urban projects, nam ely theGeorges Candilis, Alexis Josic and Shadrach Woods (1954-60), m ainly in various urban projects, nam ely theurban plans of Bagnols-sur-Cèze (1956-61), Balata (1959) and Agadir (1963). Thus, his unique internationalcareer ended up being decisive in his learning process as an architect.During this period, it is also worth em phasizing Nadir Afonso’s contact with a wide variety of internationalpersonalities. Many of these were from the Architecture sphere, like Roberto Burle Marx, Hélio Uchoa and LúcioCosta, but others were m ainly from the Arts area, like Victor Vasarely, Richard Mortensen, Auguste Herbin,André Bloc, Cândido Portinari, Di Cavalcanti, Dewasne, Edgard Pillet and Fernand Léger. He worked together withsom e of these people, and the work experience he gained surely contributed to also enrich his future artisticevolution.Although Nadir Afonso has invoked Painting as the m ain m otivation for his world-wide career, the truth is that itwas not certainly by chance that he chose to collaborate first with Le Corbusier and later with O scar Niem eyer. Asa m atter of fact, Le Corbusier was the m ost im portant architect of the Modern Movem ent, which exercised agreat influence in Portugal and especially in Porto. Niem eyer and the Modern Brazilian expressionist architecturewere already widely appreciated in Portugal as well. Thus, no wonder that, having experienced what others wouldhave am bitioned, Nadir Afonso has worked with the architects who were culturally closer to the form ation of aModern consciousness in Portugal. Therefore, this period abroad should be regarded to som e extent as anintentional and deliberate path by Nadir Afonso as an architect.2So, although he has always lived a dual vocational and professional life translated into a sim ultaneousproduction of architectural and painting works, all this long international cycle was crucial to his architecturalcareer, due to his direct contact with m ajor players of the Modern Movem ent, and the knowledge and influenceshe gained, as well as the projection that he could, thus, achieve as an architect.

1960-1970 The Autonom ous Practice of Architecture
In his own studio–Chaves and Coimbra
In Portugal, he worked in architecture for short periods. In Lisbon (1945, with Fernando Silva), in Porto (1950,with Fernando Távora, Fernando Lanhas and Fernando Moura), in Coim bra (1960-62, with Carlos de Alm eida)and finally ended up establishing his office in Chaves, his hom eland. Here, in 1960, he began his career on hisown as an architect, in a sm all environm ent that could only grant him hum ble clients and m odest sales,certainly different from those affordable in the big cities and in som e of the offices he had worked before andwhere, should he have stayed, he could have followed a m ore prom ising career and taken m ore advantage ofthe experience he had gained previously. Yet, Trás-os-Montes–and Chaves in particular–was m arked by thepresence of this painter-architect who concentrated there a great deal of his achievem ents, especially in the firsthalf of the 60’s.Regardless of the contexts, the perform ance of architecture em erged in Nadir Afonso’s life only as anindispensable resource to his econom ical subsistence and never as a true passion like Painting, activity whichhe never left out of m ind.Therefore, his architectural work em erged gradually in a non-continuous way, at tim es showing little confidenceor not even dictated by passion. Thus, the Modernity that characterizes his architectural work reveals som ehesitation in certain pieces, whereas it is fully explicit in others, clearly em phasizing the Modern influencespresent in a well determ ined cycle of his life.

The Challenge of a Personal Work: The Indelible Presence of Modern Influences
In general term s, Nadir Afonso intuitively expressed in those projects a language rem arkably influenced by LeCorbusier. The m ark of Modern Brazilian architecture with which he got acquainted during the period when heworked with O scar Niem eyer in Brazil is som etim es also worth of notice. The Chaves (1962) and Vila Real(1965) bakeries–unique m asterpieces of the 20th century Portuguese architecture, well-illustrative of the pureand abstract language of the Modern Movem ent–exhibit a delicate m erge of those two Modern references. If onthe one hand they exhibit a m ore rigorous and orthogonal design, on the other hand, they display a freer,m ore spontaneous and gestural design in their dom e coverings. This curve/straight dialectic results in aharm onious com bination which, due to its originality, substantiates a unique spatial and volum etric Modernity inPortugal.Sim plicity is, in general, transversal to all of his Modern projects, in an attem pt to com pose sim pler and purervolum es, together with a clear search for harm ony and purity in proportions, thus giving the architecturalsolutions a clear desire of Modernity.The house in the Outeiro Seco Road (1961) constitutes one of the m ost significant cases of this attention to theaesthetic care in the volum e m odeling. It reflects a Modern and pure geom etric depuration which, in NadirAfonso’s architectural works as a whole, is perhaps the m ost illustrative exam ple of the “Corbusian” vocabulary.The project (never built) of a “rotary” theatre (1957) em erges from his set of works with an absolutelyexceptional identity, due to its singular and utopian nature, “futurist” and original, associated with thetransposition of the dynam ics of kinetic art into architecture.Am ong all of his projects (and in particular am ong the m ost Modern ones), it is also inevitable to highlight oneof his m ost distinguishable works which consisted of a sober and rational design for the Infante Dom Henriquem onum ent (not built, 1954-55), face to face with the abyss and exceptionally integrated into the scenery of theSagres cliff. The flat nature and subtle lines of this light and elegant project denotes a Modernity with which weidentify ourselves, even nowadays, constituting, m aybe, the m ost “current” project am ong all of his architecturalworks.In these designs, besides the already m entioned attention to proportions and the form al rigor of the relationsas a whole, Nadir Afonso often stresses the rhythm of his constructions through the use of chrom atic contrasts,norm ally in a synthesis of two or three prim ary colors (in addition to white), with a special predom inance of theblue and the red. This aspect is well captured in the two bakeries, in the O uteiro Seco House and in the sm allresidential and com m ercial building in Madalena (1960), and draws our attention to the Modern “Corbusian”palette of colors so widely used in m any of the architect’s m asterpieces. Yet, in this particular aspect, theinfluence intrinsic to Nadir Afonso’s m entality as a painter should not be overlooked, as it m ight probably havem oved him to an instinctive addition of these streaks of colour.This free chrom atic treatm ent of shapes, aim ed at com pleting and em phasizing a search for volum etricallyharm onized and m utually “melodious” architectural com positions, was never supported by the use of them easures suggested by Le Corbusier’s Modulor, which Nadir Afonso could follow closely either as a m em ber ofthe ATBAT final investigations team or in its subsequent application to various projects of the Swiss architect.However, if in this form er group the wish of a Modern expression is obvious, in other situations we areconfronted with drawings in which that expression is not so clear, and it seem s there have been som econcessions to rather m ore traditional answers. As a m atter of fact, in other Nadir Afonso’s architectural projects,a m ixture of tradition and Modernity predom inates, yet, they never assum e a dom inant style, at leastintegrally. Even so, they seem to wish to be singled out from a purely traditional Architecture.In volum etric term s, all these other exam ples reveal a degree of depuration and sim plicity rem arkably lowerthan that of the first set of projects. By analyzing its architectural plans we realize, in addition, that they allpossess less fluid spatial solutions, based on a rem arkably traditional design. Yet, in this second set, Nadirpossess less fluid spatial solutions, based on a rem arkably traditional design. Yet, in this second set, NadirAfonso invariably rehearses a com plem entary Modernization of the architectural object at the outside level,through various design strategies that he applied with m ore or less intensity in each case. They served thepurpose of suggesting sim pler, purer and lighter volum es, the transm ission of a stronger sensation ofhorizontality and orthogonality, the search for m ore abstract façades, and a current attem pt at transm itting anillusion of a flat upper finishing, by disguising the coverings in traditional roofs which system atically configurethe top of these buildings.This rem arkable difference com paring to his m ore Modern works is m ainly explained by a gradual andincreasing separation from his profession, m otivated by an enorm ous creative dissatisfaction that his professioncould never fulfill.Actually, this interpretation seem s to be confirm ed by a chronological analysis of all of his selected works andprojects. The m ost Modern ones were designed at an initial stage in his career as an architect (until 1962),whereas the m ost “com prom ised” ones correspond to a later period (until 1964), closer to the tim e when heabandoned architecture, and so at a tim e of Nadir Afonso’s particular disenchantm ent towards the practice of hisprofession.O nly the bakery in Vila Real, a building with Modern lines, designed in 1965, em erges as an exception to thistendency. Yet, his choice in this project for a kind of “m im ic” answer replicating, in general, his hom onym ouswork in Chaves, seem s to bring to light once m ore the “saturation point” that Nadir Afonso would already havereached towards designing new architectural projects, confirm ing to som e extent the above m entionedinterpretation.Curiously enough, it is still worth m entioning that–apart from the Chaves urban pre-planning (1964)–it is also inhis first works (the m ost Modern ones) that we can find the m ost com plex program s he had to answer to.His indifference to architecture, even though exponential at the end of his career, is also visible–throughout hiswhole work–in his great difficulty to deal with the clients, which would lead him som etim es to radical decisions,such as abandoning projects already concluded. These were the cases of the project of the m ovie theatre in thetown of Chaves (1961) and its urban pre-planning (1964).

“Architecture is not an Art”
From his path as an architect (and artist) it is worth highlighting the im portance of the strong theoreticalreflection that always accom panied him , translated into a num ber of conceptual studies on Architecture. He hadalready defended these concepts in his thesis“Architecture is not an Art” (1948). The nam e of this thesis isvery m eaningful and alm ost seem s to legitim ate his difficult relationship with architecture. To him , the fact thatarchitecture cannot be dissociated from its inevitable nature as a utility–to satisfy m andatorily a practicalfunction–constituted the m ain source of all restrictions to his creativity, thus, in his view, placed out of theartistic scope.3Curiously, Nadir Afonso’s theory of opposing art to utility is very sim ilar to that of the fam ous Austro-Hungarianarchitect Adolf Loos, who also influenced Le Corbusier during his graduation and in the beginning of his career:“[…] the house has to please everyone, contrary to the work of art which does not. The work is a private m atterfor the artist. The house is not. The work of art is brought into the world without there being a need for it. Thehouse satisfies a requirem ent. The work of art is responsible to none; the house is responsible to everyone.[…] Does it follow that the house has nothing in com m on with art and is architecture not to be included in theArts? That is so”.4Nadir Afonso’s strong assum ption that Architecture is not an Art, together with the com plex interdisciplinarity ofthe first activity which im plies a collaborative work and has no intim ate, lonesom e or individual artistic genesis,constitutes the core of his great creative dissatisfaction towards architecture. It is, therefore, usual to hear himsay that he never liked architecture and never felt like a true architect.5 As a m atter of fact, his devotion topainting was always so intense that not even the privileged path am ong his peers–contacting with two of thegreatest architects of the 20th century–was strong enough to deviate him from it.

The abandonm ent of Architecture
Based on these assum ptions, som ewhere between 1965 and 1970, Nadir Afonso m ade up his m ind to leavearchitecture for good, thus releasing him self from the “[…] m artyrdom ”6 that he had chosen about 30 yearsbefore in Porto, and then starting a full-tim e com m itm ent to painting and to the creation of num erous plasticand theoretical works.In reality, his vigorous theoretical position, which he still defends nowadays, can be found reflected in som e ofthe works he m ade–nam ely in the later ones–thus helping to explain the appearance of “passionless” and lessinteresting architectural solutions.However, som e of Nadir Afonso’s initial works, especially the Infante Dom Henrique m onum ent (1954-55) andthe Chaves bakery (1962) projects seem to reflect a certain degree of artistic involvem ent. From his drawings,the search for a strong tension and accuracy, purer volum etric m odeling and m ore harm onious proportionsstands out.Having never expressed a wish to evolve artistically in Architecture, in these cases Nadir Afonso m ay haveexceptionally m oved away from this position and faced all the “im positions” not as restrictions, but rather asthe basic references that would m ake it possible for him to go further and find an artistic character in hisproposals. “[…] I don’t m ean there are no architects–and m aybe I have been one of them –who have also triedto find a balance within the laws […] [that rule the work of art]. But it doesn’t look like the norm al way.”7As it has been illustrated throughout his entire professional career, Nadir Afonso was at all tim es a painterarchitect,but always a painter in the first place and only afterwards an architect, a painter through his soul andarchitect only through education, having his life and works constantly m arked by this dichotom y of activities.However, the huge weight that his ability as a painter always had in his life does not seem to show with anidentical density in his architectural work in a way that one could consider it as the “architecture of a painter”.The current use of colors (prim ary colors usually) in his buildings, searching for aesthetic and balancedcom positions, and the concept of freedom present in the drawing of the dom e coverings of the bakeries–aspects that can also be seen as som e of the Modern influences that he received– are in fact the onlysituations that seem to point towards an intervention of his painting character in Architecture, but not significantto the extent of m aking it possible to identify a painter’s hand in the architectural work.Concluding, upon the analysis of all of Nadir Afonso’s architectural inventory–which proves to be far bigger thanit is com m only thought by the great public–it is worth em phasizing his set of initial projects, am ong which hisadherence to a lexicon of great Modernity deserves a particular attention, even though without the radicalismand intransigence of the architects he worked with in France and Brazil.In fact, even in the drawings in which Nadir Afonso seem s to propose a m ore Modern language, adhering tosom e of “Les cinq points d’une nouvelle architecture” and to certain rational principles of the Athens Charter,that language is not fully developed. Nevertheless, his preferences for urban and architectural concepts of theModern Movem ent are clear, applying them , even though, at a late stage of its diffusion in Portugal. Theseconcepts are well illustrated in the house of O uteiro Seco (1961) and in his two first proposals of the urban planfor the Dr. António José de Alm eida Street in Coim bra (1961), and still, with a m ore discrete presence, in hisfor the Dr. António José de Alm eida Street in Coim bra (1961), and still, with a m ore discrete presence, in hisChaves urban pre-planning (1964).Actually, the fact that the author did not devote him self com pletely to architecture m ay have led to a nonexploitationof an absolute Modernism , to its lim it. Nadir Afonso’s interest as a painter, always relativelyalienated from architecture, m ay have inhibited the com plete developm ent of this aspect. Nevertheless, his firstprojects reveal a quality that seem s to suggest an initial significant com m itm ent of Nadir Afonso to Architecture,depicting his m aturity as an architect, enabling him to leave his im print in Chaves and reflecting his m ostrepresentative architectural feature.In fact, his m ost Modern projects clearly suggest a dim ension of an architect that Nadir Afonso could haveaccom plished, if he had developed an interest and a deep engagem ent towards Architecture which could haveled him to a full in-depth developm ent of the Modernity displayed in his first drawings and, perhaps, precludedhis sudden and prem ature abandonm ent of the profession.

Notes

1. João Cepeda was born in Lisbon in 1983, he attended the Instituto Superior Técnico of the TechnicalUniversity of Lisbon and, having been granted a scholarship from the Helvetic Confederation, the ÉcolePolytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, com pleting his Masters in Architecture with the thesis “NadirAfonso, the Architect”. He is currently starting his professional career as an architect.
2. Michel Toussaint, “Nadir Afonso e a Arquitectura”, Nadir Afonso Sem Limites (exhibition catalog), Lisboa,MNAC– Museu Nacional de Arte Contem porânea Museu do Chiado, 2010, 29-38.
3. Afonso, Nadir, Les Mécanism es de la Création Artistique, Neuchâtel, Éditions du Griffon, 1970.
4. Adolf Loos, in August Sarnitz, Loos, Köln, Taschen, 2007, 10.
5. João Cepeda, “Nadir Afonso, o Arquitecto” (policopied text), Master Thesis, Lisboa, Instituto SuperiorTécnico, 2011.
6. Vladim iro Nunes, “Entrevista: Nadir Afonso A Em oção da Geom etria”, Arquitectura e Vida, Lisboa, nº 67,2006, 35.
7. Nadir Afonso interview conducted by the author in João Cepeda, “Nadir Afonso, o Arquitecto” (policopiedtext), Master Thesis, Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico, 2011.
8. Afonso, Laura, Nadir Afonso, Da Vida à O bra de Nadir Afonso, Venda Nova, Bertrand, 1990.