Resumen de Innovation versus Tradition in a building in Portugal: Casa da Música, in Porto

Miguel Baptista Bastos, María da Soledade Gómez Paiva de Sousa

• Throughout the history of architecture, tradition and innovation have always followed the same chronological road. With ruptures and affinities, the relations have always been close. The vanguards always resort to the past, and consequently, to traditional values, to defend themselves and demonstrate an always hypothetical possible future. The rupture is less precise than what may be thought, and the relation between them has always been like that of a dance between two actors, which, depending on the circumstances, pend more to one side or the other: this way, Tradition and Innovation sometimes in architecture vary between subject and reflex, with sporadic exceptions, which even so are never totally released from tradition’s historical references. This is the case of the well-known and consolidated Casa da Música [House of Music] by Rem Koolhaas, located in Porto, Portugal. Here, the fracture between tradition and innovation is carried out through obvious expressions and design nuances in the different scales and proportional relations.