Azenhas e açudes do Baixo Ave: contributo para a salvaguarda, preservação e valorização do património molinológico

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the Ave Watermills, understood as an integrated heritage into a river ecosystem, consolidated over the centuries, which includes environmental, sociocultural, proto-industrial, energy and traditional technological values; fundamental in profiling the cultural landscape of the Ave Valley. On account on an investigation based on architectural design as the main subject of analysis, interpretation and proposal, we present hypotheses on the history knowledge, the characterisation of molinological heritage and the problems of architectural intervention. Regarding history knowledge, we present a chronological order of the narrative: the use of manual grindstones; the progression to the Roman hydraulic mill; the impulse, the enterprise, the renaissance, the apogee and the industrial evolution; the technological transition between device and the machine; the processes of transformation from the rural landscape to the industrial landscape; ending with the decline of the traditional activity. The characterisation of the molinological heritage was based on a territorial reading at various scales - system, core and architecture - through an unprecedented on-site survey of existing structures; architectural reconstruction design; and the technical-functional interpretation of traditional mills. This method of analysis allows us to understand the influence of traditional hydraulic structures in the formation of the territory, from the management and exploitation of water resources or continued proto-industrial activity; the built elements that make up the river landscape; the exceptional architectural, morphological and constructive design of the buildings in response to the hydrographic dynamics of the river; or the technological multifunctionality of the Ave Watermills. Finally, we focus on the practice of intervention projects in the molinological heritage. Based on the study of five rehabilitation projects, we present a vision of different architectural options for intervention in molinological heritage; we reflect on new uses, taking into account current cultural, socio-economic, environmental or energy trends; and we finalised the practice of intervention design using the Ave Watermills as the central object. This essay allowed us to experiment different programmes for the reuse of existing structures and to put into the project practice the molinology knowledge by understanding the hydraulic functionality of the existing structure; the spatial organisation of a molinological structure; or even the technical-functional reconstitution of a traditional device when it is intended to be the central element of the architectural intervention.