First Stone: Three Documentaries That Explore How Architects Use Portuguese Stone

The mastery of stone is one of the most impressive features of Portuguese architecture. From the precise cut in fittings to beautiful floor designs, Portuguese architecture carries in its womb an almost born talent to manipulate one of — if not the oldest material used in the history of construction.

In celebration of this material, experimentadesign, a research project focused on design and architecture founded in Lisbon, developed Primeira Pedra, or First Stone. This multimedia platform explores the characteristics and qualities of Portuguese stone.

Presented as an online platform, the program began in 2016 and has produced eight exhibitions in New York, São Paulo, and Venice. As well as three documentaries that examine Portuguese stone from different perspectives: Resistance, Still Motion, and Common Sense. In partnership with the Portuguese network RTP, the documentaries brought together the work of 23 leading architectural, graphic, and product design professionals.

Resistance brought together ten architecture ateliers and was presented during the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture and the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein during Art Basel 2017. The architects and offices featured were Álvaro Siza, Amanda Levete, Bijoy Jain, Eduardo Souto de Moura, ELEMENTAL, João Luís Carrilho da Graça, Mia Hägg, Paulo David, Studio mk27, and Vladimir Djurovic.

Still Motion included six graphic design studios at Milan’s Triennale exhibition during MIART and the Salone del Mobile di Milano in 2017. Ian Anderson, Jonathan Barnbrook, Jorge Silva, Pedro Falcão, Peter Saville, and Sagmeister, and Walsh participated in the documentary.

Common Sense presented the work of eight product design studios at two exhibitions in São Paulo: one at Lina Bo Bardi’s Glass House and another at MADE at the São Paulo Biennial Pavilion in 2017. The film highlighted the work of Claudia Moreira Salles, Studio Campana, Fernando Brízio, Jasper Morrison, Michael Anastassiades, Miguel Vieira Baptista, and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec.