O revivescer de uma memória. A reconversão da Casa do Outeiro em Agualonga

Abstract

- Once upon a time, there was a Big House, in Paredes de Coura. An exercise based on 're-drawing" begins. A gesture in continuity, that tries to cross the thin veil between the palpable and the intangible, and to transform by reinterpreting an event, an object. The memories allow us to feel the movement of time. They are an anthology of experiences, images, dreams and fragments of lived moments which define, deep down, our own essence. Sometimes, they are just produced scenarios by our imagination, based on our personal perception on what is concrete. Not always real, but truthful, and constantly filtered through the lens of our consciousness upon the world. The study of memory's relevance in architecture prefaces all the subsequent reflections. The act of revisiting is intrinsically linked to the building's design. Because one never invents anything new, but reinterprets what exists. And even starting from the existing, to repeat is never to repeat, as Álvaro Siza teaches us. The investigation follows this premise, and attends to the importance of the constructive heritage as an undeniable tool in the composition of a new architecture. The practice of rewriting on a given architectural testimony requires a substantial understanding of the patrimony that comes to us, and a panoramic perspective on the doubts and unknowns of its approach, in the past and present times. This will be a story about a place that currently resides within a lost memory, fallen into oblivion, quietly waiting for a new narrative. We will rescue this artifact from the (un)memory, understanding what it was, what it is, and what it will become. We will look at a ruin of what life was like in a Portuguese manor house, and the rubble of its rooms, that witnessed the course of generations and experiences of its characters, for centuries. The weathered walls, lined with wild creepers, hide behind them an immensity of memories. Let´s be silent for a moment, and listen more attentively to their murmur. A project idea is proposed, gathering and converting this repertoire of thoughts into explicit matter. This corporeal manifestation of what has been written, even if hypothetical, aims to respond to the wills indicated, in a coherent and recognisable way, but equally human and permissive.