Contradictions and complexities: an interview with Manuel Graça Dias

Abstract

[Excerpt] Manuel Graça Dias: I went to Macau for the !rst time in 1978. I had graduated in 1977, I had been a student of Manuel Vicente, we then became friends and I ended up coming into the profession of architect in Macau. It wasn’t really a sudden impact with the place, in that life somewhat resembled the one I knew in the ex-colonies. I had lived in Mozambique for about ten years, and I didn’t !nd Macau all that different. But, still, that was Africa and this was Asia and the fast pace of construction, the fast pace with which projects turned up at Manuel Vicente’s studio, all that was new to me. But the truth is I had nothing to compare with because I had never worked in architecture in Portugal. As far as my political perception, life in that part of Asia was a bit removed from what was happening here in Portugal, even because we happened to be in the aftermath of the Revolution. That more exciting period of great changes had passed and there was this feeling that everything was over normalizing. Macau still retained the structure of the Portugal from before the Revolution; there were no political parties, there was still a headmaster in the schools, it was all very conservative. But although Macau was completely di"erent from Europe, from a geographic, historical, and even political point of view, I can’t say I was that much in#u enced by it because there were really no signi!cant intersections between the Macanese, the Portuguese and the Chinese communities. Even the business world was very #eeting, so there was very little involvement with other realities. In that sense, it was a much more intense relation ship with architecture, with Manuel Vicente, the realization of what studio work was like. That was the most relevant experience, much more than others related to the social or political environment. [...]