Januário Godinho - O Bairro de Pisões da hidroeléctrica dp Cávado

Abstract

The present work proposes an observation about the quarter of the hydroelectric exploitation of Alto Rabagão, which constitutes the fourth quarter projected by the architect Januário Godinho for the Hidro‐Eléctrica of Cávado (HICA), between 1958 and 1960. The quarter of Pisões is located in the region of Barroso, where the ancient population of the region occupied sources directed toward South. Despite not having suffered significant alterations until the beginning of the 20th century, through modernizations politics of the country by Estado Novo, this region became possessing two new accumulations: one connected to the "Junta de Colonização Interna" and another one next to the industrial unit of echelon of Alto Rabagão. In an area with few human traces, the architect adopts as a reference the traditional accumulations of the region, integrating in the quarter's project the international influences. The solution is where and how the architect manipulates the drawing instruments, adapting and organizing the program into a hierarchy, to then obtain an effective answer to the different requests of the order. Januário Godinho is going to develop along the slope an organic zoning, which subdivides the area in four sections. Each section relates with the other ones with issues of organization relative to the program, but also with the different potentialities. Two of these sections are essentially residential, one edified with pre‐fabricated equipments, where the workers that built the echelon of Alto Rabagão; the other corresponds to the definitive houses, in which the workers responsible for the exploitation of the central office were living. The other two sections were edified different equipments: one corresponds to equipments which create little cores distant from the rest of the accumulation; the last section corresponds to the central core of the quarter and it is an area with several equipments and external spaces, with the intent of unite the habitants. The area is shaped to receive the new human settlement, establishing a reading of continuity with the context, making this area to look like a part of the history of the place. The work developed a deepened study about the houses of the "Bairro Definitivo". These are stratified according to the people that use them, varying the details not only in the areas, but also in the program. The houses are functional in how they articulate the different compartments, but the houses also are based in traditional samples for the articulation of the spaces and in how the habitants relate themselves inside their home. The analysis of the quarter of Pisões led to study how Januário Godinho projects. The architect conjugates the international influences with local influences, trying to innovate his modern way of making, creating architecture more human and more integrated with the place.