OLIVEIRA DA SERRA MILL - The project to build the Oliveira da Serra mill was not due only to the Group's need to build it for its large olive oil production but, fundamentally, for it to use this construction to in some way produce a Statement. Or rather, to assert the concern, which the brand in fact already had, to make the industry and the economy come into line with concerns over the landscape and with contemporary attitudes. More quality, better design, more responsibility regarding the Landscape. We are not just speaking about the rural landscape around the building, but rather the global landscape, or rather, the fact that everywhere is Landscape. This is so when one invests in a contemporary image for one's products, when investigating a system for sealing the bottles which is not only more precise and efficient but which merges the past and the future in a single act. It is so when one invites artists from different areas to interpret the universe of olive oil, thereby contributing towards a universally local or locally universal culture. TWO HOUSES SANTA ISABEL - Perhaps the most important thing in this project is the desire to refer to the city that exists within the city. The interior confines of the city, created by a matrix founded on the street, public square and city block. There are many such places in Lisbon. Some older or more recent, some deeper underground or more open to the sky, but always starkly impenetrable. Ricardo Bak Gordon was born in Lisbon in 1967. Graduated at the FAUTL, 1990. During his studies he attended the Faculty of Architecture of Porto University and the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. Visiting professor in the Master in Architecture at the Instituto Superior Tcnico, Lisbon, and Visiting Teacher at the Universidad Camilo Jos Cela, Madrid. Portugal's representative at the Venice Biennale 2010 with Alvaro Siza, Carrilho da Graa and Aires Mateus.