Intervenção sobre o Património do Século XX. Caso de estudo: Casa Beires de Álvaro Siza

Abstract

As questions of the perpetualness of Álvaro Siza's work are being raised and, having measures been taken about the protection of his archives, the following thesis addresses the Rehabilitation of recent Heritage, approaching it through the study of the Beires House, by Álvaro Siza. As a means to form a critical and conscious approach to the intervention on a piece of architectural and heritage value, it was necessary to understand the evolution of the Conservation, Restoration and Rehabilitation's practice through the times. The XIX and XXth centuries are particularly filled with confrontations and interpretations of the values of heritage and authenticity and hence, the different criteria of its safeguard. Organizations as Do.Co.Mo.Mo. and ISC20C have moved this discussion in the late XXth century, promoting the documentation and inventory of Modern Architecture as a basis for its possible protection. The acknowledgement of Modern's multiplicity of values and their nature frames a more general discussion, Authenticity, object of study at two international meetings, having resulted from the latter the Nara Document on Authenticity. The term, now in discussion although not thoroughly clarified, implies the study of the practices that inform the production of Heritage, as local cultures and knowledge, overcoming the material or visual character and leaning on Anthropology. After framing Siza's work in the outcome of the second half of the XXth century, imperative to the birth of the 'Oporto School', the approach to the Beires House implies the study of available documentation, its architectural measurement, the analysis of its current state and a deliberation on the depth of a possible intervention.