A segunda vida da arquitectura vernácula no sul do Portugal

Abstract

This dissertation is proposed as an investigation into the influence of traditional techniques in contemporary architecture by examining the method / process of the architectural firm Menos é Mais where I had the opportunity to collaborate between 2017 and 2018 . The protagonists, as objects of investigation, will be three case studies in the Algarve region, one belonging to the area of the Costa Vicentina under the influence of an Atlantic climate, another from the east side of the Algarve Litoral also called 'Zona de Sotavento' influenced by the Mediterranean sea and, finally, a third project located to the west of the Algarve coastline that is influenced by both these climatic zones. Projects of restoration of pre-existing buildings and ruins, with the idea of a future reuse, where there is always the maximum sensitivity in relation to what is present in the context. Projects that, by location and type of intervention, pose appropriate questions for a common field of research. How to carry forward the ancestral knowledge accumulated after centuries of knowledge stratification, how is it possible the evolution of these systems and their use and consequent adaptation to the current architecture? Integral part of the research is the 'fieldwork' that was done through photographic surveys in various study areas, having with these experiences the possibility of seeing and documenting the charm of the firmness of the real construction. In the first part, an attempt was made to establish certain limits of this common investigation: Site, program and construction. Thus, to find in these three great conceptual areas the useful elements that determine the project method in order to relate the various projects and highlight common and recurring factors. The second part starts to apply the method to reality, the daily work and, therefore, to the selected projects, inserted in a territory of limited dimensions, but with great heterogeneity, due to its own unique location. The last part opens a report on the contemporary architect's work, full of constraints, compromises, but above all research and experimentation, in the continuous attempt to connect ancient knowledge with the latest technological solutions, craftsmanship with industry, technology with nostalgia, finding connections with the territory where it is built, connections threatened more and more constantly by money, fashions and false beliefs.