A Casa Basta. Redes miceliares e de afinidades e o seu papel na autoconstrução

Abstract

The project designed in this Master's Dissertation has as its fundamental goal to plan an intervention in an old wine cellar in Celorico de Basto. A planning on the water, material, and residue cycles was in order, and especially that embodied the project. The commission was expressed by the terrain's owner, who wants to rehabilitate it and the site's buildings in a passive (i.e. which doesn't interfere much, especially in energetic terms), syntropic (i.e. that reduces the place's entropy), and sustainable (i.e. that allows the site's resources to regenerate more rapidly than the rate they're used at) manner - especially regarding food and clean water self-sufficiency at a small scale. Many were the obstacules the architecture project faced, and it was informed through several sources, covering areas of knowledge and profession that are complementary, especially through informal conversations and pre-existing networks of affinity. As of now, the terrain is not covered by the electric grid system, and the only water outlet arrives at the 'quinteiro', making the process of settling there more difficult. The cartography, plans, and other documents about the site and buildings manifest, although diverse, a yawning gap in the representation of the internal distribution of the built houses, which required a more detailed and thorough admeasurement. The region's climate is characterized by a big amplitude - in temperature, pluviosity, and humidity - which had to be accounted for when designing the rehabilitation. The primary order's goal - that led to the necessity to plan this cellar intervention - was to make the Main House inhabitable again. Yet, due to the magnitude of this project - and the subsequent responsibility's demands - and the complex nature of the job, it was suggested that this project was covered in an ulterior phase, outside the context of this dissertation. Throughout the process, multiple questions arose: is it feasible to be self-reliant in terms of food and building materials that can supply the work in its extension and sustain life at the site? what interventions does the Cellar need in order to be habitable and comfortable? which building techinques should be used, given that independence from major distribution chains is a big goal? how to preserve and regenerate plant and animal life in the site? which collective-action dynamics can we antecipate and what impact do we want when addressing the autarchy? The bibliography underlying this work regards food self-reliance, direct and decentralized political action, self construction, passive insulating building techniques, and sustainable architecture techniques, yet little work was found on mycelium techniques for in situ insulation, so some preliminary experiments were commenced, making this project also a prototype. The site's and built work's characterization was done with the help of topographic, photographic, drawing, and satelite views, as well as plans handed by the local authority. An open rehabilitation plan was designed to embrace a long time-span, in order to anticipate some unexpected 'bumps' in the process. We tried to characterize the site by going there multiple times during the year. Countless people helped this project through personal accounts, suggestions, sharing of knowledge and technical and moral support. A future project based on this prototype and which designs the Main House's rehabilitaiton is in order.