Promontory Architects
When we visit someone’s home, we inevitably enter the private universe of the person who lives there. We are invited to a certain level of intimacy, interacting with objects that have been touched, pieces of furniture worn by time, memories in the form of portraits inscribed on the walls or on small tables. Whether it is large or small, sumptuous or modest, visiting a “house” is visiting someone’s life. That is why visits to the palaces of Ajuda, Queluz or Pena, as well as the Patudos house in Alpiarça or Sister Lúcia’s house in Aljustrel are so unforgettable – it does not depend on the monumentality or artistic quality, but on the soul that guards it.
The first time I entered Aradas’ house, once the home of a Brazilian who had returned home, I entered through the garden and was greeted by a friendly dog. I walked around the house, leaving the well on my right and an Araucaria tree, half “mutilated” by thunder, on the left. Going around the house, you went through a shed and another annex after a “trellis”, entering through the back door.
I entered this house through the intimate side, reserved for those “in the house”. It was also in this way that I entered the life and history of the family of Francisco Castanhas, son of Dr. Hermes Castanhas who had just left us. The things in disarray in their places bore witness to the intimacy of a life that had been interrupted and that Francisco still wanted to show me without shame, because he wanted me to know what was left to know about his father. Already on the outside, I had appreciated the “skin” of a modest building, but with pure forms, and irreproachable symmetry and proportion. But the “skeleton” seduced me with its exaggerated ceiling height, the “imported” wallpapers for the meeting place around the dining table, the bright colours of the carpentry in the style of the period of the prosperous “Brazilian” houses in the Aveiro area – with the prevalence of some green, green/blue, yellow and garnet hues – and the “scaiolas” and stucco “cherished” in small restorations over the course of life, of course, more exuberant on the opposite side of the house, located at the formal entrance and guest rooms.
It was, however, in the attic, the size of an entire house, that I discovered the collection that had already been shown to me in the catalogue as part of a well-photographed collection, as well as to its collector. The visible pieces were displayed in dusty display cases, all mysterious, many with an immediately painful expression, others as if part of an alphabet to be deciphered. Collections of blunt, incisive, draining, piercing, penetrating, regurgitating, inhaling objects, organized by size, therefore by levels of reach and access to bodies and souls to be helped.
A certain curiosity, admittedly sadistic, was also associated with a certain aesthetic fascination, whether due to the sequential repetition of objects reminiscent of the absurd arrangements on the archaeology shelves in Cairo, or due to the design of almost sensual instruments that adapt to the anatomy of hidden parts of the human body. None of this would have been this collector’s motivation, certainly. He was interested in the function, the history of the objects and the evolution of therapies, the possibility of storing, relating and displaying the pieces, whose scientific function reveals so much accumulated wisdom and ingenuity. He was certainly driven by a greater sense of responsibility, between preserving pieces he came across, acquiring and valuing them, and the interpretative legacy that they suggest – basically the love of “knowledge” that never abandons those who dedicate their lives to science.
Because this collection was recognized as being quite valuable, it was necessary to extend this cycle begun by his father, so Francisco, moving to prolong his life and work as if seeking a final caress, got down to work and invited me to help him.
The idea of the house is a very strong idea, because the house is the container and content of this museum, that is, Dr. Hermes Castanhas was a local doctor, his private life is confused with his professional activity as in so many other cases of doctors who, even though they were often specialists, became general practitioners for entire families out of necessity, accompanying several generations from birth to death. Therefore, families and domestic environments are the ideal setting to portray the “caring doctor”, his life, his work and his collection – all gathered in a place that, being his, was open to the “other” and thus lasting in a house that, now dressed in blue and white, tells us about universal knowledge.
So, for this reason, we enter his private space, where the atmosphere of his home reveals his presence – from the gardens to each of the rooms – the host doctor’s gaze has rested so many times on the same ceilings, doors and walls, which are now painted with the hues that were already there – now less saturated – which were used to darken the space, making it more intimate, introspective and appropriate for the thematic modulation of a museum route. Sometimes the colour is used excessively, covering all the walls and ceilings, revealing a contemporary intervention, as well as the marked distinction between the existing openings and the “minimalist” style in which new passages were opened between rooms or the layout of the lighting, wiring and air conditioning infrastructures which, taking advantage of the magnificent ceiling height, are exposed without reservation.
Finally, the attic, which is the highest place in the house and simultaneously the most hidden and secret, was once the place where the collection was kept. Now it is a space turned towards the future, that future that is bright with hope and that sees in all directions – that is why, on the time-marked mat floor, the entire wooden structure was painted white, showing the “anatomy” or “skeleton” of the house revealed by the light from the four windows facing the cardinal points – symbolizing the universality of knowledge and the light of scientific revelation that is glimpsed with each discovery.
