(In)Visibilities from the Interval’s Dissymmetry. Reflections Through Távora’s Japan and Sartre

Abstract

The Japanese way of building and inhabiting has decisively influenced many Western au- thors. Regarding Western context, “Japan’ness” was appropriated through different manners. However, surprisingly, a subliminal (yet essential) Japanese cultural feature seems to have been overlooked – at least, as far as the research on its possible reverberations on Western design is concerned. Disrupting Western’s more typical symmetrical logic, this Nipponese principle that only exists in Japan, is untranslatable. Here named (and interpreted) as ‘interval’, this notion embodies a concept that, although hidden or intuited, seems to be transversal to all Japanese realms. Based on these indications, this paper focuses on this (little-known to the West) original conception, to finally rehearse an interpretation of the potentiating effects it may have had in the case of one of the 20th century most prominent Portuguese architects – Fernando Távora –, by driving attention to his (Occidental) example, and taking on a critical and different review of his theoretical perspectives, his archives, his journeys, and an in-depth (and, we believe, unprecedented from this viewpoint) examination of his personal library – filled with Japanese and existentialist “Sartrian” traces –, to finally focus on one specific example of his architectural practice: the Tennis Pavilion.