Prototypo #002 "Notational Symphonies" "Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) believed language could enclose every possible and imaginary world. Architecture shares with the Argentine writer, a blind man full of visions, the same fascination with language - the language of representation. Prototypo #002: Notational Symphonies is dedicated to those narratives, recording on the abstract plan of the drawing any kind of phenomena. Notations and diagrams are complex forms of writing correlating several ideas in a single visual synthesis: the bar code, the musical score, the chart of technical analysis, the map of a military strike". Prototypo #002: Notational Symphonies explores the role of notational languages on contemporary architectural and artistic outputs as well as its influence on our enfolding spaces. What are its distinct features and how can they influence and inform creative procedures? Addressing these questions Prototypo features Aires Mateus & Associados first monograph. After an extensive colaboration with Gonçalo Byrne, Francisco e Manuel Aires Mateus present several of his projects and built works asserting them as a rising force of portuguese architecture. Projects include the Extension to the Engineers Guild Headquarters and the Universidade Nova Rectory, both in Lisbon. Californian studio Morphosis under the guidance of Thom Mayne, one of the United States most influential figures of experimental architecture, also present recent works in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Korea and Austria. "A relentless architectural vision, attacking its constructive system, exposing it, using it as a trace, a notation", according to Luís Tavares Pereira, founder of the studio (A).ainda Arquitectura in Oporto and author of the text analising both works under the context of the magazines main subject. Essays by Stan Allen (Associate Professor at Columbia University in New York), Thomas Leeser (founder of Leeser Architecture in New York) and Henrique Cayatte (a leading portuguese graphic designer) advance different strategies on the use of notations as an urban design conceptual tool. Stressing Prototypo´s interdisciplinary approach economist Emmanuel Figueiredo ponders about the relationship between capital markets and its visualization graphic systems and photographer Nuno Cera proposes a new take on the ESTGAD building in Caldas da Raínha (Portugal), a strongly "notational" project by architect V’tor Figueiredo. Prototypo #002: Notational Symphonies is completed with Endtroducing, a section dedicated to architectural students and their school works and Sites, a new feature where a contributor is asked to ellaborate a very subjective architectural guide of a city. New York was the first destination. Prototypo # 002 "Notational Symphonies" Plublished by StereoMatrix, Lisbon 176Pages- Color 22x 23,5cm Out in Jully 1999