Rodolfo Machado and Jorge Silvetti: Buildings for Cities

To my mind, they are particularly deserving for they see architecture and the design of the city as a singular investigation in which inquiry an realization, poetry and practicality, history and invention are inextricably entwined. They do not separate architecture from urban design any more than they do theory from practice. Their commitment to excellence, to the highest aspirations of their calling, is as evident in their studios as in their buildings and projects…They are knowing in their analysis and imbued with a sense of history and the timeless needs of the present. They draw as well as make, and they have a real understanding of the power of architectural imagery and of their own special skills in making ideas visible.

“On Teaching and Practice”
Jaquelin T. Robertson, FAIA AICP

Appreciation and respect for the objective qualities of cities also lead Machado and Silvetti to make contextual responses in their designs, but without historical rhetoric or eclecticism. Wherever possible, they fundamentally lead by a conservationist attitude that preserves and enhances the city as a perceptible physical entity. Buildings interventions placed in an existing context like Leonforte or Este, are relatively modest in material terms, yet highly strategic in how they invite a greater sense of public awareness and responsibility for the physical realm of the city.

“Making Civic Circumstances from Objective Speculations”
Peter G. Rowe

The Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1989