Vasco Fragoso Mendes

After 4 years in the actual Barracão (warehouse), the time has come. When we first moved in, late 2020, Covid had hit, I was shit scared of the investment I was making: heavy machinery, setting up the 180m2 space, stocking up on wood and all the things involved. It’ was a all or nothing kind of move, It either worked, or I had to make it work. As the only responsible for fail or success, the pressure was, and is, high even tough there was no need for any loans. All hard work and not being able to have money sitting arround, might as well have some stock, right?

As the work is thankfully evolving, the need for expanding wasn’t crucial, but it definitely was something on the plan in a year or two. I just saw this opportunity and felt like the risk was worth taking, next door to mine, where the moving costs won’t be as high as a normal move, I will only have to stop working a few days and hopefully all things will be up and running mid/late January. We’ll have log stock area, showroom, atelier and office, in one. All for a better day-to-day feel and flow, and better for welcoming clients and visits.

As the Super Rugby franchise Blues once wrote on their season preparations: Better never stops.

I never intended to have my name directly associated with my project. Don’t know exactly why (maybe because I’m good at distinguishing things), I always imagined to create something that would be able to live on its own, without me having to be present, eventually. And I thought that if it didn’t have my name on it, it could be easier.

But then: it wasn’t just a project anymore, it grew on me, and I grew from it. Don’t ask me about my plans yet, I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner, but I do know I enjoy what I’ve been doing and don’t know where I’m going.

I have been presenting work for the past 2 and half years, and that led me to re-name, so the Barracão WAD project had a face, and apparently, it also needed a name. This does not mean I work alone, there’s quite a few people I have to thank for, hands on or mind on, they all helped me along this way, but people had to see someone responsible for the work, someone to call back when shit hits the fan and someone to offer a glass of wine on their brand new piece at home.

So here am I, “always the same” for the past 8 years.

Vasco

It is always a very humbling moment to be able to showcase whatever you have been working on. This year it has hit differently.

Together with Martinho Pita and Hum, we teamed up to create a unique exhibition, a testament to our limits/possibilities of work but we set side our own marks, our own imprint in what we believe it was a proper CONTAMINATION.

To allow each other’s process to be influenced by one and the other, and leave traces of this on the final result. We wanted something textured, geometric but strong and true to what we were going for.

From a triangular table base that originated the exact opposite in blown glass, or to a bar wich once was used to blow a standing glass lamp and even a room divider subtractions that gave life to two beautifully crafted fused glass lamps. Or the exact opposite of the three. It can been seen either way, as they were thought either way.

One of the works I’m most proud of. And a lot to grow from.

Labour, hand and heartfelt work, is giving way to machining, to an increased lack of detailing and interest, making objects flat. Flat, un-human and not ours. The true meaning of something is related to the amount of love and care one has for it.

Details are essential for a more loving and nurtured future.

Deatiling = meaning.

As a craftsman and ultimately as a husband and dad, I never intended to mix and share too much about my personal life into work. It was a step too close to what a balanced work-life meant for me.

This one is different.

Since me and my wife Marta got together, I always imagined a place we could call our own, where we could build memories ourselves, from scratch and with our own ‘muscle’. It’s not a distant reality to have someone you know with a house somewhere arround the country, either countryside or in a small village. This moving away from the city is what I’m looking for. To be close but far, accessible but in silence. To be lost but able to be called back to reality.

Our space. Our home. Our family.

After what I would say almost two years fighting, we found a piece of land, 1 hour and 10 away from Lisbon with a small ruin. Close to the beach, close to Alentejo.

It is definitely a risk when buying land with no project but it’s one we are willing to make. We’re still young enough to make up for it. And to work for it as well.

Once we signed the contract past July 2023, we knew that we had to make it special. Our neighbours, the previous owners, they all had an attachment to the property but no one would look after it. We will.

I had been working with the municipality to make sure we could build whatever we could and to be sure of it once we did close the deal. Since January.

The final answer came 3 days after we signed the deal: we can build up to 200sqm of a home and up to 155sqm of agricultural shed. Good enough. And quite a risk.

Is it what we always imagined? Probably not, but we never did imagine it to this extent.

Dreams don’t pay taxes yet, so we will keep going.

The first thing that jumps to the eye are the 30 olives trees. Aged and with no attention those will be the first to be looked after. Cutting and pruning them is the next job, before the winter, to make sure they get enough water to grow back up again.

There are also quite a few cork trees, wich we weren’t on time to take out (in May) but we will next year. We are also planning to plant a couple of trees do mark the future entry of the property, but that might be later in the year.

One of the things that could be seen as something not so pleasing about the land is the proximity to others. When moving away from caos, you would want something quiet and without people arround. We are roughly 60 meters apart from our next door neighbours, but we chose to see it as a great thing.

The couple is insanely helpful and friendly, the daughter and her husband are also really cool and are helping us growing the property and making us feel like home. They have garden were they grow all kinds of vegetables and fruits. The first time we got there, just to see the plot (it wasn’t ours yet) they gave us enough food for 2 weeks… No money buys this and there’s no way we can see this as something not positive.

The land has two water springs, wich made us really happy. Water supply will not be an issue to grow whatever we choose to.

One of the exciting things about it are the season changes and the way they change the views of the land, greener in Winter, brownish during Summer.

How good is this?