Valeurs, significations et intervention d'un couvent en ruine

Abstract

This thesis seeks to determine a relevant intervention of the ruin of the convent of São Francisco do Monte in Viana do Castelo, Portugal. Intervening on built heritage requires a particularly careful approach due to its fragility and vulnerability to modification. Therefore, an intervention must be in harmony with the work. This implies the respect of its qualities. It is these characteristics which will be determining for the coherence of the intervention. To do this, it is first of all necessary to study and understand the convent of São Francisco and its constituent values. This process is therefore altruistic, where the intervention results from the values of the work, and not from an imposed program. In its present form, the convent has many interconnected qualities. A document that attests to the historical events of the people who were involved, its materiality touched by the human hand retains its messages. This convent has an additional particularity: it is in ruins. Testifying to a period of absence, nature has come to alter and destroy the human work. By modifying the meanings, she has added her own, and thus contributed to the constant architectural evolution. These values respond to each other but also communicate with the human being of today. The experience of our heritage leads us to a dialogue with the past, in a conscious and unconscious way, as well as an intellectual and sensory way, of which architecture is the intermediary. By remembering our origins, we determine a part of our identity. As for the natural meanings, they expose our very essence and the immutable laws that govern us.