SAND AND WATER CASTLES. CROSSING ENCOUNTERS AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between architecture and water through the metaphor of building sandcastles. Interweaving Europe’s cultural memory, the transience of these structures and the sculptural agency of water, such constructions are approached as examples of architecture which – like permanent buildings – face the erosion of time and the beating of the tides, achieving a constant equilibrium of forces and matter. The methodology is based on a critical review of the thought and work of Le Corbusier and Álvaro Siza, both of whom integrated experimentation with seawater and coastal matter into their creative processes. Aiming towards a tentative theory of castles, these masters intersect in shared scenes with sculptor Constantino Nivola and writer Marguerite Yourcenar, across landscapes ranging from Cap-Martin to Matosinhos. This journey along the edges of the sea and into the planet’s depths leads to a conclusive– yet open – perspective, in which macro-infrastructures and small movements of sand belong to the same family of architectures exposed to the Earth’s ancestral forces.