Arquitetura do Território de Água. Entre o Endemismo e a Obra Humana no Arquipélago da Madeira

Abstract

In this dissertation, water is the protagonist and the pretext for the interpretation of the Madeira archipelago. We explore the continuum of water to understand this territory, as it is a descriptor element of human organisation. Assuming this definition and by critical walkthrough of the investigation-site, visits in loco, and iconographic and literary research, we seek the study of the architectures of water, aiming for further comprehension of the relation of Man with the territory. The hydrographic duality of the inhabited islands reveals the urban-territorial tendencies, which confirm that since settlement to contemporaneity the dynamics of water have shaped the landscape. In Madeira we highlight the levadas and in Porto Santo the noras as the elements in association with other water related constructions that allow these islands to be habitable. In this Region, the levadas can be defined as the delimiters of the urban and non-urban areas, correlating to other elements of the insular landscape like the tanque, the poio and the house. Furthermore, in Madeira despite the abrupt terrain we can verify that the Man was able to control the gravity of the water as the (re)creator of landscape. And made the North- -South water flow the key-action in the development of this context. We seek a reflective observation for a better contemporary intervention in the territory of water, with particular attention to the awareness of its natural, patrimonial and cultural value. In this context, architecture emerges as an aggregating discipline in the desirable transdisciplinarity that seeks awareness of the inseparability of Man in the face of the "triad" landscape, territory and patrimony. We thus encourage the debate around the future of water in the abundance/scarcity binary, for which this discipline can play a cooperative action in the search for solutions capable of (re)thinking the territory as a project.