Desenho de um Muro: Reminiscências de Infância no ato de projetar

Abstract

In the midst of the plains to the northwest of Castelo Branco lies the village of Salgueiro do Campo. Within this village rests Quinta Forno da Telha, the birthplace of the central idea behind this dissertation: investigating the profound impact of childhood memories on the process of envisioning and designing a residence. This dissertation, therefore, serves as a reflection on the role of childhood in shaping the future artistic expression of adults. The research encompasses various themes that construct a narrative, providing arguments and supporting a tangible goal: an architectural project linked to an existing house on the quinta. The aim is to augment the existing structure with a new addition, aligning it with the requirements of contemporary living and addressing the challenge of harmonizing two distinct "bodies" with unique characteristics, thereby establishing continuity and coherence with the surroundings. Hence, the quest for a solution to this intervention becomes a significant part of this work. It begins with an acknowledgment of the cultural importance of the project's location in the Castelo Branco district, followed by an exploration of the sensations this circumstance evokes in the author and their family. Several references enrich this research: the inclusion of childhood as a vital factor in one's perception and creative process, as well as the memory and perception of architectural spaces that have left lasting impressions. These elements offer the opportunity to translate past feelings and sensations into new spatial realities. "Childhood is certainly larger than reality. To explain: throughout life, in our attraction to the ancestral home, the dream is more potent than rational thought. It is the powers of the unconscious that fix the most distant memories. (...) Thus, it is on the plane of reverie, not the plane of facts, that childhood remains alive within us and poetically useful. Through this enduring childhood, we maintain the poetry of the past. To inhabit the ancestral home in dreams is more than inhabiting it through memory; it is to dwell in the vanished house as we have dreamed it." With this perspective, reshaping reality, in this case, becomes intertwined with the relationship between designing a structure and the realm of the unconscious, epitomized by memory and dreams. This acknowledges the significance of spaces within (my) Family, consciously or subconsciously reflected in this project, symbolically intending to depict a past that endures and fulfills the present and future. Thus, the very methodological process includes the sensations experienced within childhood living spaces and the collective memory of these familial spaces.