Da forma monástica aos espaços para novas comunidades. Proposta de intervenção arquitectónica no Mosteiro de São Martinho de Mancelos

Abstract

Using São Martinho de Mancelos Monastery as a starting point, we analysed a set of territorial, social, historical and architectural documentation in order to understand the contemporaneity of monastic complexes as architectural spaces. We sought to understand how these spaces could re-establish their primary character as territorial focal points and religious and cultural centres, with the ability to support the sick and the elderly. We used the monastic complex of Mancelos, Amarante, as an object of study in an attempt to find in it the answers to our questions. We researched and analysed the relevant documentation on the subject, carried out a dimensional and photographic survey and also directly approached the community that uses this space to try to understand their expectations. This cross-sectional study method allowed us to record our experience of this process through drawing. In this way, it was possible to develop a plan for the regeneration of the monastic complex with a careful consideration of the existing, in its physical but also immaterial aspects, and to apply our theoretical and practical design principles for the monastery as an architectural element, in an exercise between materiality and abstraction.