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Building Research: Design, Construction and Technologies
Series Editor: Bárbara Rangel

Vítor Abrantes
Bárbara Rangel
José Manuel Amorim Faria Editors

The Pre-Fabrication
of Building Facades
Building Research: Design, Construction
and Technologies

Series Editor
Bárbara Rangel, Civil Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Building Research: Design, Construction and Technologies brings together knowledge from
civil engineering and architecture to make an interdisciplinary analysis of a recognized
building/project or a building construction research. In each volume, the topic is a building or
an aspect of a building that catalyzes the contributions of invited authors in their fields of
specialization, with professional and academic backgrounds. To make the bridge between the
scientific research and the construction site problems a parallel reading of the working
development and the technological issues raised by that construction problem are presented.
Authors, architects and engineers are interviewed and analyze the different projects in distinct
stages, from concept to construction drawings, following the development of the building’s
design and construction process. The series treats topics such as building technology,
construction management, acoustics, maintenance, prefabrication, amongst others. As a
complementary objective, authors with different backgrounds: Engineers and Architects,
Researchers and Designers are invited to to contribute to the understanding of specific buildings
through the analysis of those issues that influenced the development of the design or that
appeared during the construction or the facility management phases.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13572

Vítor Abrantes • Bárbara Rangel
José Manuel Amorim Faria
Editors

The Pre-Fabrication
of Building Facades
Editors
Vítor Abrantes Bárbara Rangel
Civil Engineering Civil Engineering
University of Porto University of Porto
Porto, Portugal Porto, Portugal

José Manuel Amorim Faria

Civil Engineering
University of Porto
Porto, Portugal

This is an updated translation of the original first edition published by Gequaltec.

Building Research: Design, Construction and Technologies

ISBN 978-3-319-22694-1 ISBN 978-3-319-22695-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22695-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016937330

Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is
concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not
imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and
regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed
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express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made.

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Editorial

This book represents the first of a series designated Building Research: Design, Construction
and Technologies. The series aims to give a positive feedback to a Springer’s invitation to
organize a book series on building construction using construction as a common field of work
of architects and engineers and putting together research and practice.
As the group has been doing in its publications at the Faculty of Engineering of University
of Porto, this series therefore proposes to put together the knowledge and complementarity of
different areas involved in construction, engineering and architecture, through two large bino-
mials, RESEARCH AND EDUCATION / PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE. For this series, the
group proposes to cross the construction design and scientific research in the analysis of a
thematic issue related to building research. To make the bridge between the scientific research
and the construction site problems, this books series will propose a parallel reading of the
working development and the technological issues raised by a construction problem. The anal-
yses of one or two case studies, recognized projects in the international panorama, suggest
topics related to the building research, such as building technology, construction management,
acoustics, maintenance, prefabrication, etc. These are the themes that authors with different
backgrounds (engineers and architects, researchers and designers) are invited to contribute to
the understanding of the problem.
For the first issue of Building Facades Prefabrication, we selected two buildings: one in
New York, by Rafael Moneo; and the other in Porto, by Eduardo Souto Moura, analyzed in the
first issues of Cadernos d’Obra, a scientific journal on construction we edit at the Faculty of
Engineering of the University of Porto. The most recent building of Columbia University in
New York, the Northwest Science Building, a four-hand design by Rafael Moneo and Dan
Brodkin of Ove Arup, designed in 2005 and opened in 2010, and the Burgo Tower in Oporto,
a building that brings a new perspective to the use of prefabrication technologies with local
traditional construction systems.
Besides its importance from an architectural and urban point of view, these two buildings
suggest interesting topics that are present in current building research, such as the construction
of facades in high rising buildings, prefabricated facades, construction safety issues related to
the development of this solution, etc. The scientific analysis is accomplished not only by pre-
senting the architectural aspects but also to connect those aspects with management, technol-
ogy and building processes in adequate depth. Alongside the case studies, specific articles on
engineer and architecture explain the critic issues of these buildings, from the analysis of
specific technological problems of such buildings, to the critical reading of the relationship
between design and technology, and to the testimony of the designers involved in the
projects.
This first issue reflects not only how closely the professional and academic areas of the
construction sectors are connected but also the urgency of this connection to fulfil the current
requirements of construction science and its two main fields, architecture and engineering.
For an architect, designing prefabrication could be an outlandish but stimulating challenge,
because it implies particular concepts and project methodologies. Over modern architectural
history, some architects explored the potentiality of the optimization of this constructive sys-
tem to innovate in design conception. Wright explored the modular capacity of the brick to

v
vi Editorial

design the Usonian evolutionary houses. Corbusier found the modern house formula in the
Dominó house based on the prefabrication of the concrete structure for the house. Mies van der
Rohe upscaled the Mechano system concept to design with steel when he arrived in the
USA. Richard Rogers learned from the car industry the construction systems to increment a
house. In all of these projects, it is possible to identify a common design strategy, using the
modularity and repletion of the industrial production into the building construction
methodologies.
The current difficulties in the construction industry have confirmed the urgent need for
interdisciplinary action between all the design disciplines, including all the different engineer-
ing branches and architecture. The requirement for high levels of building efficiency and the
optimization of the building process are making increasing demands on the accuracy of
designs. The project is no longer a sum of contributions, but a design methodology that com-
bines the answers to all the different requisites of the building, an INTEGRATED DESIGN
PROJECT. This multidisciplinary approach to design problems is only possible if it is present
in the design process from the outset.
These days, a building is required to be as efficient as any domestic appliance, but there is
probably not a single machine produced by human that involves so many systems and people.
The performance efficiency demanded to buildings in service by the different stresses to which
they are subjected has been imposing in recent decades an increasing rigour in the definition of
the various projects, particularly in the degree of scientific and technical depth in the solution
presented. To reduce the construction time and anticipate this building performance, greater
specifications are expected from the various disciplines involved in the design for the construc-
tive solutions they propose for each subsystem. It is the perfect articulation of all these subsys-
tems – structural, hydraulic, acoustic, electrical and others that will establish the perfect
functioning of the building as an INTEGRATED SYSTEM. Architecture, thermal insulation,
acoustics, structures and hydraulics inevitably come together to design the solution because
the same building elements often belong to different subsystems. The same wall might be the
structural support for a slab, an acoustic barrier in a room or a thermal barrier to the outside.
From the initial sketches to the specifications of the various materials, the design cannot
definitely be a sequence of responses, but the result of a complex algorithm of the different
responses of the various disciplines, the INTEGRATED DESIGN. The resolution of this algo-
rithm, the DESIGN OF THE CONSTRUCTION, lies in the common ground that underlies all
the disciplines. In determining the dimensions, materials and construction solutions, each
member of the team must identify the solution that meets the requirements of his or her disci-
pline. The optimal solution corresponds to the weighting of the responses from each of them.
In designing a room of 200 m2, for example, the architect cannot design the openings to the
outside without knowing what the ideal relationship is between natural and artificial lightings.
The architect cannot define the shape without the acoustician determining the ideal volume for
the interior space or else he is not able to design the finishing materials without knowing the
desired degree of reverberation. Also, the architect cannot scale the form without knowing the
dimensions of the horizontal and vertical structural components needed to achieve a span of 15
or 20 m. The final solution for the form, spans envelope, for example, is therefore the result of
the articulation of all these decisions. It is an algorithm that unites the optimal values of each
discipline to find the suitable dimensions of the various components of the architectural form.
Prefabrication systems help to simplify this equation, part of the solution is a non-variable
parcel, which gives the architectural design more freedom to invest in the design phases. The
comfort performance is assured by the prefabricated components, which gives more time to the
design team to invest in the architectural and design issues.
Some ideas arise from this book concerning the more important advantages of prefabrica-
tion. In the following paragraphs, as an “appetizer”, we develop three of them which are as
follows:
Editorial vii

– Prefabrication widens the space for industrialization in building construction narrowing the
distance between this field and its cousin industrial engineering.
– It constitutes a very powerful tool for architects if correctly used.
– It constitutes one of the easiest ways to introduce innovation in building construction.

Prefabrication and Industrialization

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have always tried to perform their basic tasks in a
more or less repetitive way in order to try to reduce the amount of effort and energy needed to
do them.
It is possible to find examples in many areas, from agriculture to the confection of meals or
the production of tools.
The pursuit of increasing the productivity (reduction of the amount of time spent doing a
unity of a certain task), or, expressing it in another way, reducing the effort spent to achieve the
same goals, has always represented therefore a major concern of humankind.
Therefore, at the construction level, industrialization has been assumed as a fundamental
solution to accomplish this essential basic goal.
Prefabrication represents one of the main fields of construction industrialization. Currently,
prefabrication is defined as “a set of construction techniques that are based on the production
of construction elements outside of their final places of definitive setting, on site or in an exter-
nal production unit, which are afterwards connected and assembled on site”.
The industrialization of construction may solve many problems such as to reduce the time
needed to build (using prefabrication, many times we say to erect in opposition to build on
site…) and to avoid difficult weather conditions.
Concerning cost, the situation may be a little different because prefabrication demands in
general huge investments, and therefore, local site construction costs with labour and materials
are substituted with costs with industrial facilities and equipments and the final trade-off of
costs depends on a lot of “market issues”.
In macroeconomical terms, industrializing construction is very important for the nations
and the economical zones because it facilitates exports and increases quality because quality
control procedures may be applied in a better and more efficient way.

Prefabrication and Architecture

Prefabrication implies a certain discipline on the conception related with geometrical organi-
zation and repetition which also, since always, represents a barrier to its penetration on the
fields of higher importance to architects.
Therefore, in general, architects have always considered prefabrication as an enemy to cre-
ation liberty, a prison which they didn’t want to submit to. For an architect, however, prefabri-
cation may constitute a motivation and at the same time a paradigmatic inspiration of the
creative process.
However, prefabrication may be a very powerful tool for architects if correctly used. Using
prefabrication implies to be able to use in a wise way the “tools” of prefabrication design
which are mainly modular coordination, control of construction tolerances and correct and
complete design of joints. If these three issues are well controlled by the architect, using a
specific design methodology gives an incredible strength to architects to consolidate and
explode simple ideas.
Prefabrication design has a lot to do with building integration. Nevertheless, connection and
integration arise from the “superposition” of volumetric very innovative three-dimensional
modules, where each module is very carefully designed, planned and fabricated in an industrial
plant. Alternatively, the design may be produced in a planar mode where pavements, walls,
viii Editorial

ceilings and roof tops are designed as a succession of parts put together with “joints”, respect-
ing a modular basis and managing to solve all the construction tolerances issues. Architects try
to learn/copy other industrial activities such as the automobile industry, the “all-the-time”
leading industry in innovation, prefabrication, automation and industrialization.

Prefabrication and Innovation

Prefabrication constitutes one of the easiest ways to introduce innovation in building construc-
tion. Innovation comes from very different origins such as academic research, internal research
and development in companies, patents and original ideas.
Construction began as an artisanal activity and has recently developed into a more industri-
alized and mechanized industry, profiting initially from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
industrialization (although with a large delay in relation to other industries…) and from the
more recent developments in all fields of science with an emphasis on materials science and
CAD/CAM machines.
Prefabrication transfers production from each specific site to more or less developed and
skilled industrial facilities where industrial tools may be better used. The production of con-
struction components and “global construction systems and sub-systems” in a factory reduces
the risk of mistakes, facilitates compliance with technical specifications and enhances produc-
tivity. In addition, it allows producing “high-tech” components, planar or three-dimensional,
using modern industrial tools and machines.
Thus, one may consider that in these facilities translating research into practice becomes
easier. Maybe this is why one might consider prefabrication as the best way to introduce inno-
vation in construction.
Enjoy finding in this book specific ideas and solutions used in the interviews, the articles
and the two real-case examples that illustrate these views!!
Contents

Part I Burgo Tower in Porto

Tectonic Design ................................................................................................................. 3
Bárbara Rangel, José Manuel Amorim Faria,, and João Poças Martins
Building Facades Prefabrication. The Lesson of the Burgo Building ......................... 21
José Manuel Amorim Faria
Design of Façades ............................................................................................................. 25
Hipólito de Sousa and Rui Sousa
The Importance of Design in the Prevention of Accidents in Construction ............... 33
Alfredo Soeiro
The Traditional Urban Square – A Vital Organ in the City or a
“Thing” of the Past? ........................................................................................................ 37
Fernando Brandão Alves
Part II Northwest Science Building of the University of Columbia Building
Construction to Discipline Architecture ........................................................................ 49
Bárbara Rangel, José Manuel Amorim Faria, and João Poças Martins
Northwest Sciences Building by Rafael Moneo: Circumstantial Evidence ................ 73
Joan Ockman
Drawings in the Air.......................................................................................................... 77
Jeffrey M. Brock
Acoustics and Noise Control Within School Buildings ................................................. 81
Diogo Mateus, Andreia Pereira, and Vítor Abrantes
Maintenance and Maintainability of University Buildings the
Challenge of Façades ....................................................................................................... 91
Rui Calejo

ix
 Part I
Burgo Tower in Porto
Abstraction and Traditional Materials
in a High-Tech Façade
 Tectonic Design
Conversation with Eduardo Souto de Moura on
Burgo Tower about Engineer and Architecture
Bárbara Rangel, José Manuel Amorim Faria,
and João Poças Martins
In 2008, for the first edition of CdO, we interviewed Eduardo
Souto de Moura, to understand the development of the proj-
ect of the BURGO tower in Porto, a building that crosses
contemporary technologies of building facades with tradi-
tional Portuguese materials. The concept for the façade was
a challenge for the architects and engineers. Traditional
Portuguese granitic stone was used, which is heavy therefore
difficult to manipulate during the construction. This building
would certainly not be possible without a strong complicity
between architecture and engineering since the beginning of
the design until the construction of the façade.
To understand the particularities of the development of
the project, the preparation of the building works and the
construction of the building we explored four main themes in
these interview. To understand the project methodology, we
explored the relationship between ARCHITECTURE and
ENGINEERING during the design and the construction
phases. To explore the design concepts adopted, we tried to
discover how the CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH influ-
enced the architectural design development to define the
building, the TECTONIC OBJECT. Finally we tried to dis-
cover how the CONSTRUCTION DESIGN determines the
whole project in Eduardo Souto de Moura’s way of work.
The façade is nowadays understood as a skin, particularly in
tall buildings. This concept has overpassed architecture
and become in some cases the stakeholder requisite. The
façade is becoming an independent system of the build-
B. Rangel (*) • J.M.A. Faria
Faculty of Engineer, Oporto University, Porto, Portugal
e-mail: brangel@fe.up.pt; jmfaria@fe.up.pt
J.P. Martins
Civil Engineering, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
V. Abrantes et al. (eds.), The Pre-Fabrication of Building Facades, Building Research: Design, Construction and Technologies,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22695-8_1
ing. Is this transforming the design methodology for
architects and engineers?
Today’s architecture is divided into two different kinds of
interventions: in the first kind, clients and architects require
images that are materialized using the available technology.
Engineers often have to suffer to cope with these kinds of
images. And using today’s technology, steel structures, can-
tilevers, the T’s, the X’s and so on, they actually manage.
Then there is another kind of architecture, that doesn’t show
off as much, although architecture always has been a show,
there is nothing new about that. Popes have always wanted a
show, so did kings. This other kind of architecture doesn’t
have these icons and doesn’t build monuments, it is dedi-
cated to residential buildings, buildings that are more anony-
mous, a kind of architecture that portrays its time, its own
culture. As Mies van der Rhoe said, we must make architec-
ture with the possibilities of our time. In those cases, I still
believe (I am a dinosaur) that there is a close relationship
between material, language and building system. This rela-
tionship can then be changed, concealed, inverted, but it is a
starting point. Without that, anything goes… It’s not bad, but
it is very tiresome. One would have to imagine a concrete
building wrapped in plastic or a plastic building wrapped in
carbon… So the starting point is always that one, that rea-
sonable base point, adequate material, adequate building
system and meaningful language.
Sometimes that language falls short of what we intend, of
insinuations we want to make and must be changed. That’s
where the building skins come in. But that isn’t a kind of
architecture that has interested me so far… I feel that resis-
tance is becoming more difficult. That other kind of architec-
ture is imposing itself through an attack, both by private
clients and by image-based buildings. Public administration
wants iconic buildings that leave a mark on the city and
3
4 B. Range et al.
change it. Politicians want to leave a mark, but things were
always like that!
Do you think then, that the way things are going, that the
value of an image and the value of a brand are becoming
decisive?
I think they are undermining everything at the moment.
Books’ covers keep looking nicer and more attractive regard-
less of their content. Architecture must have a certain atmo-
sphere… It starts at the tender process, before cross sections,
elevations and floor plans are developed, appealing 3D ren-
ders are already available. I notice that, not because I lose
many bids (almost all of them actually) but because the same
ones keep winning them, the ones that develop the most
appealing images. And it isn’t by chance that when these
architects build, they are the least interesting in my opinion.
Nowadays there is a group of architects who follow a more,
say, conservative approach that need to build in order to
show that they are good and the ones who can draw well who
need to build so they can say they’re good. It’s a little
contradictory.
They follow opposite paths. In that sense, when we speak
about images and the commercial sense of images, so to
speak…
That is not an architectural problem. It is a general prob-
lem. I mean, today’s culture is built upon images, content
does not matter in any product, either in advertising, in lit-
erature, in painting… When a painting is abstract, its content
disappears. It is “oh, so nice”! Architecture is also “so nice”!
It is all upside down.
Architecture is not the manifestation of an individual who
decides as he or she pleases. There are too many “artists”…
Architecture is a social act.
People have forgotten that architecture and engineering,
which are almost the same thing, occupy places. Geography
belongs to everyone, so I have no right to go somewhere and
impose a formula, or a stadium, or a housing project or any-
thing else just because it is my site. It is my site but it is not
my image, it is everyone’s. That’s why architecture is a social
act.
Things must be thought through so that people will later
adhere to the project. In the Braga Stadium, for instance,
people liked it. People from Braga call me an engineer and
they take pictures with me. This means they adhered. Today,
the stadium is (and I am not vain!) an object of affection for
Braga’s people. People go on day-trips there.
Are we driving again to the concept of façadism?
It is not just façadism. Here we have to speak about
baroque. Baroque was façadism. The problem is that baroque
and baroque’s façadism had the Counter-Reformation as a
background. There was an ideology that intended to show
that Christianity hadn’t been hurt by the Lutheran reform. So
they invested in a new language. In the popes’ concilium,
new religious orders were created (like the Jesuits) and new
architectural styles were developed, which resulted in well
known façades such as the “Je Jesu”. Nowadays we have the
images without everything else in the background. When a
twisted building appears or they say that the floors go around,
I don’t see Jesuits, nor popes, nor the Counter-Reformation.
Why should someone go to sleep facing West and wake up
facing East?! I think that this support is not there. There is
“more aesthetics and less ethics”, “form over function”,
when up until now, there was always some balance between
form and function, one supported the other. Every style (for
example, classical and so on) would show different images
but would have a supporting background. Nowadays one
impresses through difference, and that’s enough.
Construction is the common discipline between architects
and engineers. The definition of the constructive system that
will define the building is a consequence of the combination
and integration of the disciplines involved: architecture,
structure, fire safety, among others. The concept defined for
each one of these disciplines is filtered by a set of requisites
and regulations that will beacon the solution achieved. These
regulations are supported by scientific research in
construction.
Is it important for an architect’s notion of construction to
understand the comfort engineering and not only about
structural engineering?
If I were to start a school, I would teach only three subjects in
six years: Drawing, Building Construction and History.
Throughout the 20th century (and there are some traces about
this in the 19th century), sciences moved outside their origi-
nal boundaries. Some branches such as chemistry, physics or
biology, follow methods and results that are then lent through
analogy to other kinds of research, to other subjects. In order
for History to advance, anthropology is needed, because if
anthropology can study the behavior of an Amazonian Indian
or an Australian native and understand what life was like in
the past, it can understand many ancient social structures
from the study of western societies. Therefore, History needs
Anthropology, Anthropology needs Sociology, Chemistry
cannot advance without Physic’s studies about DNA and nei-
ther can Biology. The exact same thing happens in architec-
ture. If the artist-architect has a sketchpad and he draws
shapes, it can be very interesting as an egocentric activity, but
in order for them to be useful and materialized, he needs
information. Nowadays, an architectural object must meet a
Tectonic Design
wide set of requirements. The object must be correctly mate-
rialized, cheap (there is no money!), comfortable (people
demand comfort) and sustainable. You can’t have a glass pane
facing South with the AC turned to its maximum! The struc-
ture must be reasonable, I won’t even say good.
So right now Architecture really needs Engineering and
Engineering needs Architecture. I think that subject is out-
dated because there is no architect in the world who doesn’t
work with great engineers from day one. In magazines you
can see great designs by Koolhas, Herzog, always with the
same engineers from ARUP. The same thing happens in
Portugal. We need an engineer from day one because our
ideas must be filtered. Today I cannot start a new project or
go anywhere without an engineer, even just to take a look at
a site. First of all, because it’s pleasant, we are friends, then
because I can’t take a look at a site without starting to draw
a line. That line is either supported or erased by the engineer:
“Don’t go there, it’s a mess!”
Geotechnics, water supply, rainwater draining, is that what
you mean?
No, actually I think those subjects are secondary, they
come about later on. I am talking about the general design of
the building, its structure and a coordinator for all those dis-
ciplines that make a building sustainable. Today’s buildings
cannot overspend resources. That is why I cannot draw a dis-
tinction now.
Do you think that this relationship has become closer due to
these new requirements?
I’ll even be more radical than that: I think that in a few
years there will be no separation. It is a close, everyday
relationship.
I am making a mirror for the Venice Biennale and I am not
going to risk making a 20 m mirror that might fall over. Rui
Furtado [note: a Portuguese engineer] told me how to do it
straight away, what the structure will be like, if it is going to be
visible from the sides or not. The relationship is so close that
when he is done with the structure, the design will be almost
complete. Without the structure, I cannot have my mirror, then
either he will sign it or he won’t. Things used to be like that.
Borromini and Bernini were not architects. They were master
builders who knew about everything. The building system ruled.
Do you think that this new relationship, that could be more
restricting, is actually more liberating?
I could not build the Braga Stadium without 20 engineers
around me and they could not build it if they had not had 20
architects. We do have some intuition, but it is not enough to
achieve a good result.
5
We are all in the same team, one does the cutting, the
other is an anaesthetist, etc.
I think I only draw at the final design stage, over the engi-
neering drawings. There is a story I usually tell about the
Braga Stadium, a real story. The deadline was so short that
there was no time to build and design. The construction
works were about to halt, I would make a drawing, a collabo-
rator would build a model, then I would propose some open-
ings in the beams and the walls, some squares or some
rectangles. When I saw the engineering models, I would say
that those shapes were unacceptable… so the rectangles and
the squares would become circles, but how big?
I would then draw elevations with that dimension. I would
finish the design and, at night the engineer would design the
reinforcement and the design would be at the worksite by 9
AM. This is an example of what I believe the future of con-
struction will be like… Four hand duets!
Is building design moving towards an integrated methodol-
ogy between the architecture and the engineers?
I understood that many years ago when I went to London
for a meeting with Arup. The project I was working on with
Siza was the Hanover Pavilion. Over here I cannot only work
in that way except with a few engineering offices.
It was an open-space office with cubicles and tables. At
the table there was the acoustics specialist, the structural spe-
cialist, the safety specialist, etc. When I brought up a topic,
each one of them would tell me everything I needed to know
about it. The bottom line is that the buildings are well built.
Construction Research
Since nowadays there are so many building regulations to
follow and there are more and more building require-
ments, in what way does research contribute towards
greater architectural freedom?
This is where the issue about time comes in: Nowadays,
Portugal is a strange country. Designs must be completed by
tomorrow and there is no time to think about solutions,
unlike the rest of Europe and all over the world. Nowadays,
there is not enough time for good architecture and engineer-
ing design.
Specialization makes no sense in architecture …
It doesn’t make any sense at all. An architect is someone who
knows a little bit about everything and he doesn’t know
everything about anything…
Architecture works this way: you don’t have to be an
expert in a field. You have to study it, be sensible and then do
6 B. Range et al.
it. It doesn’t matter if you are building a bank or a hospital.
You must be in control of the problems.
More and more different disciplines are involved in design
and the designers’ responsibilities regarding compliance
with regulations are growing. Can it be an obstacle to the
authors’ creativity? Do you think there it will interfere too
much with the author’s work methodology?
There is a lot of interference but I believe that these limits
have never inhibited our imagination, quite the opposite. The
more censorship there is (as long as it is reasonable, not just
a tantrum) the more well defined architecture becomes. An
artist’s biggest despair is having total freedom. Architects
have a great advantage here. Things are well defined.
I think that among all the information from regulations,
some of it is ridiculous, others are intuitive. Regarding sus-
tainability, for instance, some things are completely ridicu-
lous. Architecture is not good because it is sustainable. It is
sustainable because it is good. It has to be.
I do not think that there is such a thing as a beautiful
building people die from heat in. Sustainability is a matter of
common sense. Sustainability is a necessary but not a suffi-
cient condition.
I think that all of that information regarding sustainability
is interesting but we cannot be fundamentalist about it.
In Madrid’s airport when there are about 5000 people
inside, everything is very quiet. It is sustainable. Not a ray of
sunshine goes into that airport, but it is bright inside, it is
acoustically comfortable. It is about 1 km long, with doors
every 200 m, there are about 300 people at each door but
there is no noise. People tend to say it is very good because
the acoustics are fantastic. I disagree; it is very good because
it is an integrated design.
So you believe that the extra technical support architects
have today allows further creative freedom. I am thinking
about Herzog’s work or even Rem Koolhas’, although
that is more evident in Herzog’s work. This is only pos-
sible if the architect and the engineer work together.
Many of the building systems that are being adopted were
invented by architects. Take the use of nets, for instance.
Koolhas applied a net to the Prada Museum then Herzog
used it and now they are everywhere. So the magician hides
one hand and reveals the other.
I do not see a dichotomy here at all. This is how I work,
this is how the good architects I know work. The separation
between engineering and architecture does not exist.
Do you think that the depth of the knowledge about building
systems, supported by engineering, helps the develop-
ment of the lucid architectural design you often
mention?
Besides that lucidity, you have to find the right solution,
which is the difficult part. Architecture is always a game
between information and form. The more the available infor-
mation, the better the resulting form.
Siza draws and he says that drawing is intelligence’s
desire. Intelligence is a more permanent state.
I just wish for lucidity for that particular moment. This
lucidity is a momentary conciliation of the information that
is available and the form that is possible.
What does architecture give to construction?
Then there are other details: architecture can’t just be the
answer to a problem, that is called construction, not architec-
ture. Architecture is construction plus some added value
which is creating sensations that make people feel good. It
can never be premeditated, if it is, it is a disaster.
So architects must understand how to create objects, as
well as possible, and then they can add the details.
Borges sometimes injects some defects in the text, to dis-
connect it, so that isn’t so cohesive and so perfect. It adds
some freshness and some life. The same happens in
architecture.
When I visited Siza’s house in Belgium, it was perfect,
rational, anonymous. All of a sudden, you notice a 1.2 m
window you could only crawl through which is there so that
you could sit down admiring the scenery in winter. That is
the unexpected detail.
If you listen to Miles Davis’ Jazz, he has a theme that is
repeated with some variations throughout the song but, when
it seams that he will follow this metric until the end, that the
song will finish that way, he does the opposite. Like that cor-
ner by Siza… That is the unexpected.
Those gaps and differences can be found throughout his-
tory and time.
People like old houses because, although they are less
comfortable than newer ones, they have these variations,
these unexpected details. Exceptions, no-man’s-lands, base-
ments, attics, corridors where people could play football…
I noticed that in your early work, there was careful research
about the building system in every project. The study of
the building technology that was present in each case was
an important tool for the development of the building
design. I am talking about houses. In the North, the houses
are made in stone, in Alcanena they are made in brick, in
the Algarve they are whitewashed…Now that you are at a
point in your career where the projects are much larger, is
that kind of research still a work tool?
Tectonic Design
It is, but just as far as it leads to the rationalization of the
whole process. I am not saying that this is the way buildings
ought to be built, but this is the way they should start. It
allows me to find standard measurement and module settings
for the materials and to identify the North and South facades,
etc. I use this kind of research. Just because I am building a
hospital in the Algarve, I am not going to use whitewashed
walls painted in blue or use limestone in Lisbon.
That might be done with a smaller object, a fait divers, a
demonstration of specific research. The important part is
whether you are in the right mood and the right dress for the
party. So there is another kind of research.
I think I never stopped researching. I started to research
different things because the scale of the problems required
me to. That is the difference between a pediatrician who
treats children and the physician. The scale is different.
Is the Burgo an abstract urban object made with a granitic
skin?
It is an old object. It is not something I could do today. It
was made when I stopped building just houses. I was in
Switzerland at that time so, it must be said, I was influenced
by Swiss architecture.
I understood that modernism was exhausted. It couldn’t
be used in its pure form. Its time was gone. No one believed
in pilotis or in a house as a living machine anymore. But that
was market language, domino structure. It was the modern
language that was not convincing. Post-modernism was even
less convincing. It was bizarre. This was quite embarrassing
for architects during that period.
This explains the success of Swiss architecture. They did
not neglect their cultural traditions. They merged them with
modern architecture. They created a kind of hybrid architec-
ture, mixing tradition and modernity. For people from my
generation, young people without a well defined language, it
was important.
I had no experience in public buildings or large buildings.
Burgo was my first large building. It brings up many of the
subjects that were mentioned at that time and that were criti-
cized with irony: “the skins and pictorial materials fashion.”
These are, however, perfectly adequate for a building of that
size.
I even explain it at conferences and in articles. The fire-
men defined the height, the width was determined by the
engineers, etc. That was what happened! Then I designed
some makeup: some rimmel, some red, blue and pink
lipstick…
Then I had meetings with the promoters (BPI [note: a
Portuguese bank] at that time). “Why won’t you build it in
granite? This is a solid bank and we are in Oporto. Or build
it in glass because we are a modern and transparent bank. Or
7
in steel because it is high-tech…” I knew that was possible
because I couldn’t move the floors but I could dress it in a
Lacoste polo shirt, a shirt or a T-shirt…
I understood that the skin was a reality. It was not a fash-
ion issue. I took this arbitrary factor to its last
consequences.
The building has no base, no body, no ending. You could
remove three floors and it would look the same. You could
add five floors and it would still look the same, so it is
anti-classical.
The Burgo could only be built if it was a lot cheaper than
it was designed to be. The structure was there mainly to sup-
port the façade, which was built in solid stone and steel. The
new clients (who were very nice) said, “We cannot build a
structure to support a façade, you will have to make it
lighter.”
Is it an abstraction? Did this repetition make the building
almost anonymous or did it make it sober but not anony-
mous at all? In the case of the Burgo, you can tell that the
abstraction works. There are windows inside.
It does. The façade is sustainable. I mean, the north façade
is not sustainable because it is decorative. The window depth
in the South façade works very well because they are brise-
soleil windows.
The eastern windows are 20 cm high. They only allow
direct sunlight to enter at a certain time of the day. The same
thing happens with the West facing windows. There is no
problem with the Northern façade and the method works per-
fectly with the South one.
In this building, the design process was followed obses-
sively, from the first conceptual pictures until the façade
detailing… Do you think that the rigor in this process is a
quest for the authenticity of the object or the authenticity
of the concept?
Burgo is an authentic building because it is a mirror of the
lie it really is. It was not by chance that the door appears to be
a rabattement of the building planes and it shows that every-
thing is a phoney. That is why the word “Burgo” is written the
other way round and why you can see the concrete columns
there. It is not a stack or it would not have columns.
It is like the theme song from Truffaut’s movie, “La Nuit
Américaine”. At the end of Truffaut and Mel Brooks’ mov-
ies, the cameras are moved so that the set can be seen from
behind. You can see people drinking a Coca-Cola or Julius
Cesar smoking a cigarette, dismantling the plot and showing
that “This is fiction”
I felt the need to admit it: “Lookout, this is all a lie!” so at
the time I decided to confess and to tell the truth… “It is a lie”.
8 B. Range et al.
Is that door, with the letters facing the wrong way, an obvi-
ous escape or is it a composition option? Those letters are
only facing the wrong way because that wall is a rabatte-
ment of the façade…
It is a finishing touch. It enhances the idea that it has been
pulled out. It should be part of the wall and it is made out of
panels. By pulling out that panel, people have a perception
that there has been a rotation of that section. People entering
the building can see the columns and the beams. Actually, it
is not just formalism, for two main reasons. Up to the fourth
or fifth floor, the columns are so slender that horizontal steel
elements were necessary. Many of those brise-soleils are
real. They are actual structural elements.
Those horizontal boxes exist up to a certain level, then I
kept using the same elements, but they are false.
I needed brise-soleils anyway. I would either use window
shades, which is not easy when the windows are 70 m high,
or I would use static elements that would create that overlap-
ping effect.
Regarding the relationship between being anonymous and
being sober that you often mention, what do you think
about the urban impact of this building in Avenida da
Boavista?
The word “anonymous” is very dangerous because it can
be perceived as being very snobbish… The Burgo is not
anonymous. I often say that the ultimate goal for an architect
is to become anonymous. After is ready, the building is no
longer ours. This means that when there is a collective adher-
ence, the building ceases to be ours and it becomes every-
one’s. This is the ultimate goal for an architect.
When people no longer say that a building is by someone
and start to say that the Belém Tower belongs to Lisbon or
that the Clérigos Tower belongs to Oporto, the buildings
become anonymous. This is my goal and it is every archi-
tect’s wish: for a building to become everyone’s, not ours.
Construction Design
Was there a big change in the project when the construction
work started, 10 years later? Did the designs go back to
step one?
The design did not change too much. The most important
issues were the costs and choosing the materials … The
showroom itself became a 1:1 scale model. I had a new goal.
I had to achieve that cost or it wouldn’t be built. That is why
different materials and detailed designs were needed.
In the first design the granite walls in the façade were
8 cm thick…and now they are 2–3 cm thick. I evidenced this
fragile look with bolts. I didn’t do any pasting, I did not want
it to look like a stone wall at all. It was not thick enough.
The structure was also redone. The previous design had
thin concrete slabs but they were made lighter, molded slabs.
Of course, this changed the original layout completely.
Everything had to be redesigned and reconfigured because
the modules are all different. The elements are not the same.
All of the floors have different heights, the elements are
different and so are the gaps between them.
It is something you also learn.
Were they the result of the stack shape that was adopted?
How did these functional aspects interact with the
architectural design? How do they relate to the architec-
tural design?
It has a solid structural core that frees the building from
columns. It is an open-space because I did not know what
would happen to it. In an open-space the columns must be
moved to the façade, which presents an important advantage:
the structure determines the façade’s design.
I couldn’t face the building westwards towards Avenida
da Boavista. It would be unprotected. In the late afternoon
the sun would shine on the Western façade and nobody
would be able to see at all. I had to move the rooms to the
North and to the South. They were fine to the North and I had
the brise-soleil to the South. All the bathrooms, kitchenettes
and corridors were placed to the East and to the West of the
building. Since there are windows, the corridors are properly
lit.
This was when the façade system with 1.10 m opaque
strips and 0.20 m high windows appeared on the Eastern and
Western façades. The South and North façades are the oppo-
site: 1.10 m high windows and 0.20 high strips.
The solution is perfect because it is an architectonic lan-
guage. The design was adapted to an important
requirement.
In these façades, we can see all the principles of shading.
There are walls to the West and window overhangs to the
South…In a bad design, recommendations do not blend in.
Good design integrates sustainability in the work itself,
improving it.
This brings us to the beginning of our conversation again…
Although there are work teams that support the architect’s
work, he must have a deep understanding of the techno-
logical aspects so that he can reflect them in his design
since its earliest stages.
Architecture must design and create forms, and in order to
do so it needs information. This is one of the few rules in
Tectonic Design 9

architecture: information/form. Architecture is not autono- Architecture is not just this information. It is the informa-
mous. We need a lot of information to create adequate forms. tion plus some added value. Up to a certain point, there are
This is called construction. rules that are developed using information. From there on,
you have to know how to deal with them.

General Arrangement Drawings

North façade
10 B. Range et al.

East façade
Tectonic Design 11

Plan of Level-1
12 B. Range et al.

Plan of Level 0
Tectonic Design 13

Plan from Level 1 to Level 17

14 B. Range et al.

Section A
Tectonic Design 15

Vertical Section of the south and west façade

Vertical Section of the north and east façade
16 B. Range et al.

Vertical Section of the south and west façade

Vertical Section of the north and east façade
Tectonic Design 17

General view Copyright Luis Ferreira Alves

18 B. Range et al.

View of the corner of the two types od façades Copyright Luis Ferreira Alves
Tectonic Design 19

Image of the interior facing north Copyright Luis Ferreira Alves

20 B. Range et al.

Image of the interior facing west Copyright Luis Ferreira Alves

Another random document with
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tone: “I have the honour to report to your Excellency such and such
an affair,” or again become bolder and exclaim: “You have thirteen
and I fourteen.” I would not dispute anything, but would only say:
“Just so; certainly so; most certainly so; absolutely so.” I would tell
the whole world that such and such a distinguished gentleman had
condescended to speak to me, and if I could not say so truthfully, I
would lie about it, for nothing so adorns speech as a lie, to which
poets are witnesses.
Finally, I would obtain by humility and flattery a profitable place,
but above all I would strive to become a governor, for that place is
profitable, honourable and easy. It is profitable, because everybody
brings gifts; it is honourable, because everybody bows before a
governor; it is easy, because there is very little work to do, and that is
done by a secretary or scribe, and, they being sworn people, one
may entirely rely upon them. A scribe has been created by God by
whom man has been created, and that opinion is foolish which
assumes that a scribe’s soul is devoid of virtue. I believe there is little
difference between a man and a scribe, much less difference than
between a scribe and any other creature.
If I were a great man and a small gentleman, I would, in my
constant attempt to be useful to my country and the world at large,
never become burdensome to anyone, and would put all my reliance
upon my worth and my deserts to my country; and if I should find
myself deceived in this, I should become insane from so much
patience, and should be a man who not only does nothing, but even
thinks nothing.
If I were a great man and a great gentleman, I would without
cessation think of the welfare of my country, of incitements to virtue
and dignity, the reward of merit, the suppression of vice and
lawlessness, the increase of learning, the cheapening of the
necessaries of life, the preservation of justice, the punishment for
taking bribes, for grasping, robbery and theft, the diminution of lying,
flattery, hypocrisy and drunkenness, the expulsion of superstition,
the abatement of unnecessary luxury, the limitation of games at
cards which rob people of their valuable time, the education, the
founding and maintenance of schools, the maintenance of a well-
organised army, the scorn of rudeness, and the eradication of
parasitism.
But if I were a small man and a great gentleman, I would live in
great magnificence, for such magnificence is rarely to be found in a
great soul; but I will not say what else I would do.
 Vasíli Ivánovich Máykov. (1728-1778.)
Máykov was the son of a landed proprietor. He entered
military service, in 1766 was made Associate Governor of
Moscow, and occupied other high offices. He began to write
early and, being an admirer of Sumarókov,—like all the other
writers of his day,—he wrote odes, eulogies, fables, tragedies,
all of them in the pseudo-classic style. He knew no foreign
languages, and his imitations are at second hand. This,
however, gave him a great advantage over his
contemporaries, in that he was better acquainted with
Russian reality than with foreign models. His mock-heroic
poem Eliséy, or Excited Bacchus, from which “The Battle of
the Zimogórans and Valdáyans,” given below, is an extract, is
far superior for real humour, Russian environment and good
popular diction to anything else produced by the Russian
writers of the eighteenth century; and the undisputed
popularity of the Eliséy, which was not dimmed even by
Bogdanóvich’s Psyche, was well merited.

THE BATTLE OF THE ZIMOGÓRANS AND VALDÁYANS

The field was all ploughed and sowed in oats, and after these
labours all the cattle and we were resting. Already had the grain
sprouted a quarter of an inch, and our time had come to cut the hay.
Our meadow, as all know well, bordered on the meadow of the
Valdáyans; no one could tell where the line between them was but a
surveyor, so the strongest hand mowed the grass there, and the
meadows were always a cause of quarrels; even then they were the
cause of our terrible battle.
The day had come, and we went into the meadow, taking with us
milk, eggs and whey-cheese, loading ourselves with kvas, beets,
dumplings, brandy and buckwheat cakes. No sooner had we
appeared with our provender in the meadow, than we espied the
host before us: the proud Valdáyans were standing there with arms
of war. We became frightened and ran away like rabbits, and running
we looked for weapons resembling theirs: withes, pales, poles,
cudgels and clubs. We vied with each other to arm ourselves with
sticks and to prepare ourselves for the fray. The chief of our village,
foreseeing a terrible calamity, seated himself on his horse and
gathered us all together; having gotten us together, he took a pen
and began to scribble. Though he was not a Frenchman nor a
Greek, but a Russian, yet he was a government official and wore a
crimson uniform. God forfend that a scribe should be a military
commander! He took out his pen, and began to write down the
names, while our backs were already smarting from the descent of a
hail of stones upon them. Is it possible Pallas was with the scribe?
For he was still writing down names, while the Valdáyans were
drubbing us. Old women in the huts were lamenting to heaven; small
children, all the girls and women, and chickens hid behind the stove
and underneath it.
Seeing that there was to be no end to his writing, we no longer
listened to the scribe, but like a whirlwind swept down from all sides
and, pressing forward in a mass, hastened to the fight. Neither
fences nor water could keep us back, and the only salvation for the
Valdáyans was in flight; but they stood out stubbornly against us,
and with agility swung their wooden arms at us. We could not break
asunder the order of their ranks, and from both sides there flew upon
us stones and mud, the implements of war of furious men. We were
bespattering and striking each other down without mercy, but ours
stood like a firm wall.
Forgive me for mentioning names which it would not be otherwise
proper to utter here, except that without them we would not have
been victorious. Even if our scribe had been much wiser, he would
not have broken that wall with his skull, which we barely smashed
with our clubs. We had for some time been striking each other
mightily with stones, when our Stépka the intrepid (he was not very
clever, but a powerful man) rushed with grim rage into the thickest
fight among the Valdáyans: he struck them down with a cudgel, and
they raised a cry, but Stépka hacked among them like a butcher.
Then his nephew, too, took a club, flew at them, but lost courage and
showed them his back, whereupon a frisky Valdáyan jumped upon it
and was on top of our hero. In the very midst of the sanguinary fray
he had jumped upon the hero’s shoulder, and boasted before his
whole horde that he had begun with a battle and had ended with
leapfrog. But the jest ended badly for him, for the Valdáyan had not
yet thanked us for the ride, when Stépka’s nephew grabbed the
Valdáyan by the girdle and so hurled him to the ground that he broke
his nose and so flattened it that he now has to wear a plaster upon it.
Then, lo, we all suddenly noticed in the distance a rider all covered
with dust: that was the proud leader of the Valdáyans; that beast was
a worthy likeness of our own manager. Raging with an internal fire
against us, he galloped upon his steed towards our hero. All thought
that they would end the terrible battle by a duel; we all stood in quiet
expectancy, and terror seized us all. Already the heroes approached
each other on their horses, but suddenly, it seemed, they changed
their minds: they did not fight, they only cursed each other, leaving
us alone to finish the battle, while their horses took them back to
their homes.
In the meantime, if you wish to know it, the sun shone so that it
was time for us to dine; if the accursed battle had not taken place, I,
no doubt, would have swallowed two or three bites by that time; but,
under the circumstances, I thought neither of beet soup nor
buckwheat mush.
When the horses had taken away the commanders, we carried on
a real war: all order was suddenly gone, and at the same time all
distinction of great and small disappeared; we were all mixed up,
and all were equal. Suddenly my brother swooped down like a hawk,
to aid us, and he mixed up the battle, like wheat mush in a vat.
Accuse me not of lying in what I am going to tell of my brother:
holding a heavy club in his hand, he carried terror to all our enemies:
wherever he passed there was a street, and where he turned about,
there was a square. He had been vanquishing the Valdáyans for an
hour, and they had all been running away from him, when all at once
there appeared his adversary. My brother’s exploit was stopped, for
that Valdáyan hung upon his neck, and bit off my brother’s right ear.
And thus my beloved brother Ilyúkha, who had come to the battle
with ears, went away with but one. He dragged himself along,
bleeding like a pig, maimed, torn, but above all, disgraced.
Think of my loss! He lost an ear, and I a brother! Since then I no
longer recognise him as my brother. Do not imagine that I have
spoken this in vain: when he was possessed of both ears, he was
easily moved by the words of the unfortunate; but now that door is
entirely locked, and he hears only when one says: “Here, take this!”
but he no longer hears the word “give,” and with his left ear accepts
nobody’s prayers. In an empty well it is not likely you will find a
treasure, and without it I do not care even for my brother.
Having lost such a hero, we were bereft of all means of victory; the
Valdáyans henceforth got the better of us, struck us down, pressed
hard upon us and drove us from the field. We should have been that
day entirely undone, had not Stépka saved us from our dire distress:
like a bolt of lightning he suddenly rushed upon us from behind, and
stopped us, who were then in full flight. “Stand still, good fellows!” he
yelled, “stand still! Come together in close array, and begin anew the
battle!” All was changed. O most happy hour! At Stépka’s voice
crowds of men came together, came, bore down the adversary,
defeated them, and wrung the victory they held from their hands.
They rushed together, correcting their disorder, and hotter than
before the battle was renewed.
Already we were driving our enemy back to their village, and
depriving them of their cudgels and sticks, and our battle would have
been at an end, if a monk had not appeared to their aid. This new
Balaam was urging on his beast and beating it with a stick for its
sluggishness; but all his beating of his dobbin moved her not a step
ahead. He somehow managed to reach the top of the hill, and there
his holy lips uttered curses against us. But neither these, nor the
wooden arms, kept us back, and we flew against our enemy, and did
our work among them. That worthy man, seeing our stubbornness,
leaped from his horse, and showed the swiftness of his feet, which
was greater than when he first had come, and, showing us his back,
fled to his house.
 Dark night had already put out its veil, when all were worn out with
fighting. The Valdáyans being vanquished, we all went from the field,
and reached home, though hungry, yet alive.

THE COOK AND THE TAILOR

’Tis easier for a cook to roast and stew than for a tailor to talk of
cookery. It was, I know not where, in Lithuania or Poland,—he knows
of it who knows more than I; all I know is that a lord was travelling,
and as he was returning from a visit he was, naturally, drunk. A man
came from the opposite direction, and he met the lord, phiz to phiz.
The lord was blown up with conceit and liquor, and two servants led
his horse for him. The horse strutted proudly along, and the lord was
steeped in arrogance like a cock. The man that met him was poorly
clad. The lord interrogated him, like a man of sense:
“What handicraft have you?”
“A cook, my lord, stands before you.”
“If so, then answer me, before I spit into your face: you are a cook,
so you know what dainties are; what then is the greatest dainty?”
“A roast pig’s hide,” the cook answered without hesitation.
“You, cook, are not a fool,” the lord said to him, “and gave me
readily an answer, from which I conclude that you know your
business.”
With these words, the lord gave him a generous reward, just like a
father, though he had begot no children. My cook, for joy, tripped
lightly along and was soon out of sight. Whom should he meet but a
tailor, an old acquaintance, nay, a friend,—not to the grave, yet a
friend.
“Whither do you hurry so fast, friend Ilyá?”
The other replied: “Now, my friend, I can boldly assure you that the
cook’s profession is better than yours. You, drunken Petrúshka, do
not even guess that Ilyá is going to have a big celebration! Look at
my pocket. I and my wife will be satisfied with what we now have; we
cannot unto our deaths spend all the lord, who just passed me drunk
upon the road, has given me.”
And he pulled out his purse that was filled with gold coins: “That’s
what I got for a pig!”
And he showed his money in his bag, and told his friend all that
had happened. The tailor was melting with envy, as he tried to count
the money, and he thought: “Of course the lord is a fool for having
given a bag full of money for a pig; I will run after him, and overtake
him, and if all the wisdom is only in a pig’s hide, I’ll shave him clean,
like a scribe.”
Having said this, the senseless man started on the road. The lord
was riding leisurely along, and as the tailor was running fast, he soon
overtook him. He cried to him:
“Wait, lord! I am not a Tartar, and I will not cut you down; I have no
sword, and I will not injure you. I am all worn out with running; I am a
cook, and not a thief.”
The lord heard the words and, looking back, saw that it was not a
robber with a club, so he reined in his horse. The tailor ran up to him,
panting like a dog, and barely breathing, having lost his strength in
running. The lord asked him:
“Why, beast, have you been running so senselessly after me? You
have only frightened me: I thought it was a robber with a club that
was after me.”
The tailor said: “I am not a thief, my lord!”
To which the lord: “What manner of creature are you, then?”
“I am a cook by trade, and know how to stew and roast well.”
The lord asked him at once: “What is the sweetest part of the ox?”
The rash man said: “The hide.”
No sooner said than the cook’s sides and face, and belly and back
were swollen, being struck with a whip. The tailor walked slowly off,
weeping disconsolately, and cursing the lord and the trade of a cook.
 Mikhaíl Vasílevich Danílov. (1722-1790.)
The Memoirs of Danílov are interesting for the reason that
they indicate the sources from real life from which Catherine
II., Fon-Vízin and others drew the characters for their
comedies. Thus, Matréna Petróvna of Danílov’s Memoirs is
the prototype of Mávra’s mistress in O Tempora (p. 272) and
of Mrs. Uncouth in The Minor, p. 342.

FROM HIS “MEMOIRS”

I was my father’s favourite son. When I was about seven years

old, or more, I was turned over, in the village of Kharín where my
father lived, to the sexton Philip, named Brudásty, for instruction. The
sexton was of low stature, broad in his shoulders; a large round
beard covered his chest, his head of thick hair came down to his
shoulders, and gave the appearance of having no neck. There
studied with him at the same time two of my cousins, Eliséy and
Borís. Our teacher Brudásty lived alone with his wife in a very small
hut; I used to come to Brudásty for my lessons early in the morning,
and I never dared to open his door, until I had said aloud my prayer,
and he answered “Amen.” I remember to the present day the
instruction I received from Brudásty, probably for the reason that he
often whipped me with a switch. I cannot in all faithfulness say that I
was then guilty of indolence or stubbornness; on the contrary I
studied very well for my years, and my teacher gave me lessons of
moderate length and not above my strength, so that I readily
memorised them. But we were not allowed to leave Brudásty for a
moment, except for dinner; we had to sit uninterruptedly on the
bench, and during the long summer days I suffered greatly from this
continuous sitting, and grew so faint that my memory left me, and
when it came to reciting my lesson in the evening, I had forgotten all
I knew, and could not read half of it, for which the final resolve was
that I was to be whipped for my stupidity. I grew to believe that
punishment was an indispensable accompaniment of study.
Brudásty’s wife kept on inciting us, during the absence of her
husband, that we should yell louder, even if it was not our lesson.
We felt some relief in our tedious sitting when Brudásty was away in
the field working. Whenever Brudásty returned I recited my lessons
correctly and without breaking down, just as I did in the morning
when my thoughts were not yet tired out. From this I conclude that
compulsory study is useless to the child, because the mental powers
weaken from bodily labour and become languid. This truth becomes
apparent when we compel a child to play beyond its pleasure: both
the game and toys become wearisome to the child from mere ennui,
and it will rarely play with them, if not altogether hate them.... Such is
the fruit of senseless and worthless teachers, like Brudásty: from
mere weary sitting, I got into the habit of inventing all kinds of
accidents and diseases, which, in reality, I never had.
Having learned the A B C from Brudásty, my father took me near
the city of Túla to a widow, Matréna Petróvna, who had married a
relative of ours, Afanási Denísovich Danílov. Matréna Petróvna had
at her house a nephew of hers and heir to her property, Epishkóv. It
was for his sake that she had asked my father to bring me to her
house to study, that her nephew might have a companion. As the
widow loved her nephew very much and fondled him, we were never
compelled to study; but being left to my choice in the matter, and
fearing no punishment, I soon finished my oral instruction, which
consisted only of the two books: the Book of the Hours and the
Psalter.
The widow was a very pious woman: hardly a day passed without
having divine services in her house, either with a priest, or
sometimes a servant acted in his capacity. I was employed to read
the prayers during these services, and as the widow’s favourite
cousin had not yet learned to read, he, from great envy and anger,
used to come to the table where I was reading the psalms, and kick
me so painfully with his boots that I could not repress my tears.
Though the widow saw her nephew’s naughtiness, she never said
anything more than in a drawling voice, as if against her will: “Ványa,
you have had enough fun!” as though she did not see that Ványa’s
fun had caused tears to flow from my eyes. She could not read; but
she used to open every day a large book on her table, and
pretended to read loudly the prayer of the Holy Virgin to her people.
The widow was very fond of cabbage soup with mutton at dinner,
and I must confess that as long as I lived at her house I do not
remember a single day that passed without a drubbing. The moment
she seated herself at the table to eat her favourite soup, some of the
servants dragged the cook that had cooked the soup into the dining-
room, put her on the floor and mercilessly beat her with rods, and the
widow never stopped eating as long as they beat the cook and she
cried with pain; that had become a regular custom and evidently
served to heighten her appetite. The widow was so stout that her
width was only a trifle less than her height.
One day her nephew and I took a walk, and there was with us a
young servant of hers who taught us to read and was at the same
time studying himself. Her nephew and prospective heir led us to an
apple-tree that grew outside the enclosure, and he began to knock
down some apples, without having first asked his aunt’s permission.
This crime was reported to his aunt. She ordered all three of us to be
brought into her presence for a just punishment. She ordered in
great anger to take up at once our innocent servant and teacher and
to place him on a wooden horse, and he was unmercifully whipped
for a long time, while they kept on repeating: “Don’t knock the apples
off the tree!” Then came my turn: the widow ordered to have me put
on the horse, and I received three blows on my back, though I, like
the teacher, had not knocked down any apples. Her nephew was
frightened, and he thought that his turn would now come to be
punished, but his fear was groundless; all the widow did was to
reprimand him as follows: “It is wrong, it is not proper, sir, to knock
down apples without having received my permission,” and then she
kissed him and said: “I suppose, Ványa, you were frightened as they
whipped your companions; don’t be afraid, my darling! I’ll not have
you whipped.”
 Catherine the Great. (1729-1796.)
The French culture, which had held sway in Russia before
Catherine II., became even more pronounced when she
ascended the throne. She corresponded with Voltaire, offered
d’Alembert the place of tutor to her son, paid Diderot a salary
as keeper of his own library, which she had purchased from
him, and, in the first part of her reign, laboured, at least
platonically, for the introduction of new laws in the spirit of
Rousseau and Montesquieu. She planned to build schools
and academies, encouraged the establishment of printing
presses, by making them free from government control, and
by her own example did much to foster literature. One of her
earliest ventures is her famous Instruction for the commission
that had been called to present a project for a new code of
laws. She composed a large number of comedies, tragedies
and operas, wrote a work on Russian proverbs and a number
of fairy tales. Of the latter her Prince Khlor gave Derzhávin an
occasion to immortalise her as Felítsa, and to inaugurate a
new style of ode. Catherine was the first to found a satirical
journal, the All Kinds of Things (see p. 326), the prototype of a
number of similar periodical publications. The latter part of her
reign is characterised by a reactionary tendency, due to her
general distrust of the Masons, who had taken a firm foothold
in Russia and whom she suspected of favouring the French
Revolution. She then put literature under a ban, and caused
much annoyance to men like Nóvikov and Radíshchev.
Her Prince Khlor has been translated into English under the
title: Ivan Czarovitz; or, The Rose Without Prickles That
Stings Not, A Tale, written by her Imperial Majesty, translated
from the Russian Language, London, 1793. It had previously
appeared in a periodical paper, The Bee, published at
Edinburgh. It is reproduced here.
Act I., Scene 4, of Mrs. Grumble’s Birthday, in C. E.
Turner’s Studies in Russian Literature, and the same, in
 Fraser’s Magazine, 1877.
There is also a translation of Catherine’s Memoirs,
originally written by her in French, under the title: Memoirs of
the Empress Catherine II., Written by Herself, with a Preface
by A. Herzen, translated from the French, London and New
York, 1859.

O TEMPORA

ACT I., SCENE 1. MR. SENSIBLE, MÁVRA

Mávra. Believe me, I am telling you the truth. You cannot see her.
She is praying now, and I dare not go into her room myself.
Sensible. Does she really pray all day long? No matter at what
time I come, I am told I cannot see her: she was this morning at
matins, and now she is praying again.
Mávra. That is the way our time is passed.
Sensible. It is good to pray. But there are also duties in our life,
which we are obliged to carry out. Do you mean to tell me that she
prays day and night?
Mávra. No. Our exercises are often changed, yet all goes in a
certain order. Sometimes we have simple services; at others they
read the Monthly Readings; at others again the reading is omitted,
and our lady gives us a sermon on prayer, abstinence and fasting.
Sensible. I have heard it said that your lady is very sanctimonious,
but I have not heard much about her virtues.
Mávra. To tell the truth, I cannot say much about that either. She
very often speaks to her servants on abstinence and fasting,
especially when she distributes the monthly allowances. She never
shows so much earnestness in praying as when creditors come and
ask to be paid for goods taken on credit. She once hurled the prayer-
book so violently at my head that she hurt me and I was compelled
to lie in bed for nearly a week. And why? Because I came during
vesper service to report that the merchant had come to ask for his
money which he had loaned to her at six per cent., and which she
had loaned out again at sixteen. “Accursed one,” she cried to me, “is
this a time to disturb me? You have come, like Satan, to tempt me
with worldly affairs at a time when all my thoughts are given to
repentance and are removed from all cares of this world.” After
having uttered this in great anger, she hurled her prayer-book at my
temple. Look, there is still a mark there, but I have covered it with a
beauty-spot. It is very hard to please her, for she is a very strange
person: sometimes she does not want to be spoken to; and then
again she prattles in church without stopping. She says that it is
sinful to judge your neighbour, and yet she herself passes judgment
on all, and talks about everybody. She especially cannot bear young
ladies, and she is always of the opinion that they never do as they
ought to do.
Sensible. I am glad to find out about her habits. This knowledge
will help me a great deal in the matter of Mr. Milksop’s marriage. But,
to tell the truth, it will be a hard thing for him to get along with such a
woman: she will either drive him out of the house or into his grave.
She demanded herself that I should come to Moscow to talk over her
grandchild’s marriage. So I took a leave of absence for twenty-nine
days, and came down here from St. Petersburg. It is now three
weeks that I have been here, and that I have attempted to see her,
and she is all the time finding new excuses. My time will soon be up,
and I shall have to return. What is it going to be to-day? She has
promised to give a decisive answer, though I do not yet see the
beginning of it.
Mávra. Have a little patience, sir. Maybe you will be able to see
her after vespers; before that time she does not like to receive
guests.
Sensible. But I have a great deal to talk to her about, so please tell
her that I am here. Maybe she will let me in this time.
Mávra. No, sir, for nothing in the world will I report to her, for I shall
be beaten, or at least roundly scolded. She grumbles at me as it is
and calls me a heathen because I sometimes read the Monthly
Essays, or Cleveland.
 Sensible. But you may tell her that I am very anxious to see her.
Mávra. As soon as vespers are over, I shall go to her, but not
sooner. Yet, I do not advise you to stay longer than six o’clock. At
that time she receives the visits of ladies like her who amuse her
with bits of news that they have gathered in all the corners of the city.
They talk about all their acquaintances, and malign them, and in their
Christian love pass them over in review. They inform her of all the
news of St. Petersburg, adding to them their own lying inventions:
some say less, others more. No one in that assembly is responsible
for the truth,—that we do not care for,—provided all they have heard
and have invented has been told.
Sensible. Will she at least invite me to supper? What do you think
about that?
Mávra. I doubt it. What suppers do you expect of fasters?
Sensible. What? Do you fast out of stinginess? To-day is not a
fast-day.
Mávra. I did not mean exactly that, only,—only—we do not like
extra guests.
Sensible. Speak more openly with me, Mávra, for you certainly
must know your mistress. Tell me the truth. It seems to me that she
is full of superstitions and hypocrisy, and that she is at that a mean
woman.
Mávra. He who looks for virtues in long prayers and in external
forms and observances will not leave my lady without praise. She
strictly observes all holidays; goes every day to mass; always places
a taper before the images on a holiday; never eats meat on a fast-
day; wears woollen dresses,—do not imagine that she does so from
niggardliness,—and despises all who do not follow her example. She
cannot bear the customs of the day and luxury, but likes to boast of
the past and of those days when she was fifteen years old, since
when, the Lord be blessed! there have passed fifty years or more.
Sensible. As regards external luxury, I myself do not like it, and I
gladly agree with her in that, just as I respect the sincerity of ancient
days. Praiseworthy, most praiseworthy is the ancient faithfulness of
friendship, and the stern observance of a promise, for fear that the
non-observance of the same might redound to one’s dishonour. In all
that I am of the same opinion with her. It is a pity, a real pity, that
now-a-days people are ashamed of nothing, and many young people
no longer blush when they utter a lie or cheat their creditors, nor
young women when they deceive their husbands.
Mávra. Let us leave that alone. In her dress and head-gear, you
will find the representation of the fashion of her ancestors, and in this
she discovers a certain virtue and purity of morals.
Sensible. But why ancestral morals? Those are nothing else but
meaningless customs which she does not distinguish or cannot
distinguish from morals.
Mávra. Yet, according to the opinion of my lady, the older a dress,
the more venerable it is.
Sensible. Tell me, then, what she does during the whole day.
Mávra. But how can I remember it all? And then, I can hardly tell it
all, for you will only laugh. Well, I do not care; I’ll tell you a little about
it. She rises in the morning at six o’clock and, following a good old
custom, gets out of bed bare-footed; then she fixes the lamp before
the images; then reads her morning prayers and the Book of the
Saints; then she combs her cat and picks the fleas off of her, and
sings the verse: “Blessed is he who is kind to the beasts!” During this
singing she does not forget to think of us also: she favours one with
a box on her ears, another with a beating, and another with scolding
and cursing. Then begins the morning mass, during which she
alternately scolds the servant and mumbles prayers; she now sends
the people that had been guilty of some transgression on the
previous day to the stable to be beaten with rods, and now again she
hands the censer to the priest; now she scolds her grandchild for
being so young, and now again she makes her obeisances as she
counts the beads on the rosary; now she passes in review the young
men into whose hands she could rid herself of her grandchild without
a dowry, and now ... ah! wait a minute, sir, I hear a noise, and it is
time for me to get away from here. It is, no doubt, my lady, and I am
afraid she might find us together: there is no telling what she might
think of it. (Exit.)

PRINCE KHLOR

Before the times of Ki, Knyaz of Kíev, a Tsar lived in Russia, a

good man who loved truth, and wished well to everybody. He often
travelled through his dominions, that he might know how the people
lived, and everywhere informed himself if they acted fairly.
The Tsar had a Tsarítsa. The Tsar and the Tsarítsa lived
harmoniously. The Tsarítsa travelled with the Tsar, and did not like to
be absent from him.
The Tsar and Tsarítsa arrived at a certain town built on a high hill
in the middle of a wood, where a son was born to the Tsar; and they
gave him the name Khlor. But in the midst of this joy, and of a three-
days’ festivity, the Tsar received the disagreeable intelligence that his
neighbours do not live quietly,—make inroads into his territories, and
do many injuries to the inhabitants of the borders. The Tsar took the
armies that were encamped in the neighbourhood, and went with his
troops to protect the borders. The Tsarítsa went with the Tsar; the
Tsarévich remained in the same town and house in which he was
born. The Tsar appointed to him seven prudent matrons, well
experienced in the education of children. The Tsar ordered the town
to be fortified with a stone wall, having towers at the corners; but
they placed no cannon on the towers, because in those days they
had no cannon. The house in which the Tsarévich remained was
built of Siberian marble and porphyry, and was very neat and
conveniently laid out. Behind the palace were planted gardens with
fruit trees, near which fish-ponds beautified the situation; summer-
houses made in the taste of various nations, from which the view
extended to the neighbouring fields and plains, added
agreeableness to the dwelling.
As the Tsarévich grew up, his female guardians began to remark
that he was no less prudent and sprightly than handsome. The fame
of the beauty, wisdom and fine accomplishments of the Tsarévich
was spread abroad on all sides. A certain Khan of the Kirgíz Tartars,
wandering in the deserts with his kibítkas,[136] heard of this and was
anxious to see so extraordinary an infant; and having seen him, he
formed a wish to carry him away into the desert. He began by
endeavouring to persuade the guardians to travel with the Tsarévich
and him into the desert. The matrons told him with all politeness that
it was impossible to do this without the Tsar’s permission; that they
had not the honour of knowing my lord Khan, and that they never
pay any visits with the Tsarévich to strangers. The Khan was not
contented with this polite answer, and stuck to them closer than
formerly, just like a hungry person to a piece of paste, and insisted
that the nurses should go with the child into the desert. Having at last
received a flat denial, he was convinced he could not succeed in his
intentions by entreaties, and sent them a present. They returned him
thanks,—sent his present back, and ordered to tell him that they
were in want of nothing.
The Khan, obstinate and fixed in his resolution, considered what
was to be done. It came into his head to dress himself in tattered
clothes; and he sat down at the gate of the garden, as if he were a
sick old man; and he begged alms of the passengers. The Tsarévich
happened to take that day a walk in the garden; and, observing that
a certain old man sat at the gate, sent to ask who the old man was.
They returned with answer that he was a sick beggar; Khlor, like a
boy possessed of much curiosity, asked leave to look at the sick
beggar. The matrons, to pacify Khlor, told him that there was nothing
to be seen; and that he might send the beggar alms. Khlor wished to
give the money himself, and ran off. The attendants ran after him;
but the faster they ran, the faster the child set out, and got without
the gate. Having run up to the faint beggar, his foot catched a stone,
and he fell upon his face. The beggar sprang up, took the child under
his arm, and set a-running down the hill. A gilded rospúski (a kind of
cart with four wheels) trimmed with velvet, stood there: he got on the
rospúski, and galloped away with the Tsarévich into the desert.
When the guardians had run up to the gate, they found neither
beggar nor child; nor did they see any traces of them. Indeed there
was no road at the place where the Khan went down the hill. Sitting
on the rospúski, he held the Tsarévich before him with one hand, like
a chicken by the wing; and with the other he waved his cap round his
head, and cried three times, “Hurrah!” On hearing his voice, the
guardians ran to the slope of the hill, but it was too late: they could
not overtake them.
The Khan carried Khlor in safety to his camp, and went into his
kibítka, where the grandees met the Khan. The Khan appointed to
Khlor his best starshiná.[137] This starshiná took him in his arms, and
carried him into a richly ornamented kibítka, covered with Chinese
stuffs and Persian carpets. He set the child on a cushion of cloth,
and tried to pacify him; but Khlor cried and repented he had run
away from his guardians. He was continually asking whither they
were carrying him, for what reason, to what purpose, and where he
was. The starshiná and the Kirgíz that were with him told him many
stories. One said that it was so ordained by the course of the stars;
another that it was better living than at home. They told him all but
the truth. Seeing that nothing could pacify him, they tried to frighten
him with nonsense; they told him they would turn him into a bat or a
hawk,—that they would give him to the wolf or frog to be eaten. The
Tsarévich was not fearful, and amid his tears laughed at such
nonsense. The starshiná, seeing that the child had left off crying,
ordered the table to be covered. They covered the table and served
the supper. The Tsarévich ate a little: they then presented preserves
and such fruit as they had. After supper they undressed him and put
him to sleep.
Next morning before daybreak, the Khan gathered his grandees,
and spoke to them as follows: “Let it be known unto you that I
yesterday carried off the Tsarévich Khlor, a child of uncommon
beauty and prudence. I wish to know perfectly whether all is true that
is said of him; and I am determined to employ every means of trying
his qualifications.” The grandees having heard the Khan’s words
bowed themselves to the girdle. The flatterers among them praised
the Khan’s conduct, that he had carried off a child, nay, the child of a
neighbouring Tsar. The mean-spirited approved, saying: “Right lord
Khan, our hope, whatever you do must be right.” A few of them who
really loved the Khan shook their heads, and when the Khan asked
why they held their tongues, they told him frankly: “You have done
wrong in carrying off the son of a neighbouring Tsar; and you cannot
escape misfortune, unless you compensate for this step.” The Khan
answered: “Just so,—you are always discontented!” and passed by
them. He ordered the Tsarévich to be brought to him as soon as he
should awake. The child, seeing that they wished to carry him, said:
“Do not trouble yourselves, I can walk. I will go myself.” Having come
into the Khan’s kibítka, he bowed to them all, first to the Khan, and
then to the rest on the right and left. He then placed himself before
the Khan with such a respectful, polite and prudent mien, that he
filled all the Kirgíz and the Khan himself with wonder. The Khan,
however, recollecting himself, spoke as follows: “Tsarévich Khlor!
They say of you that you are a wise child, pray seek me a flower,—a
rose without prickles that stings not. Your tutor will show you a wide
field. I give you a term of three days.” The child bowing again to the
Khan said: “I hear,” and went out of the kibítka to his home.
In the way he met the Khan’s daughter, who was married to the
Sultan Bryúzga.[138] This man never laughed himself, and could not
bear that another should smile. The Sultana, on the contrary, was of
a sprightly temper and very agreeable. She, seeing Khlor, said to
him: “Welcome, Khlor, how do you do? Where are you going?” The
Tsarévich answered: “By order of your father the Khan, I am going to
seek the rose without prickles that stings not.” The Sultana Felítsa
(that was her name) wondered that they should send a child to seek
such a rarity, and, taking a sincere liking to the boy, she said to him:
“Tsarévich, stay a little, I will go with you to seek the rose without
prickles that stings not, if my father will give me leave.” Khlor went
into his kibítka to dine, for it was dinner-time, and the Sultana went to
the Khan to ask leave to go with the Tsarévich to seek the rose
without prickles that stings not. He did not only not give her leave,
but strictly forbade her to go with the child to seek the rose without
prickles that stings not.
Felítsa, having left the Khan, persuaded her husband, Sultan
Bryúzga, to stay with her father the Khan, and went herself to the
Tsarévich. He was very happy to see her, and begged her to sit
down beside him, which she did, and said: “The Khan has forbid me