These were the words of the architect Carlos Machado e Moura, who was responsible for presenting the person and the work of the architect Manuel Correia Fernandes at the ceremony of donation of his collection to Casa da Arquitectura, which took place on 20 November as part of the celebrations of the 5th anniversary of the Casa da Arquitectura.
The moment, which completely filled Casa's Archive, was also attended by the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, on his first visit to Casa da Arquitectura.
Machado e Moura defined Manuel Correia Fernandes as a "singular architect, author of an extensive and plural work" where, throughout the six decades of work that make up his collection, "we find different concerns, different ways of looking and working in architecture".
But that is not all. "In his civic and political activity, Manuel Correia Fernandes was a decisive actor, both in his militant involvement for civil society causes - namely in the defence of the Bolhão Market from the destruction to which it seemed to be condemned - and in the strategic definition of interventions in the city - namely in Porto'2001, from the creation of the Casa da Música to the urban rehabilitation operations of the so-called "Regresso à Baixa".
In short, stressed Carlos Machado e Moura, "for Manuel Correia Fernandes, architecture is designed politics, because it has an understanding of urban space and territory in both its physical dimensions and its ideological expressions."
In the closing speech of the ceremony, the Minister of Culture recalled that "the actuality and commitment of architects in the transformation of the territory and society is unavoidable and has corresponded, in the last 50 years, to a very positive monumental leap".