A pedreira. Um exercício de composição em Marco de Canaveses

Abstract

As the final work of the integrated master's course of FAUP- Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto, this dissertation's theme is the design of the new infrastructure for the granite quarry of Granidense company, in Marco de Canaveses. Due to time limitation, there is no deep reflection, I only present the preliminary study of an extensive and complex industrial program. It was the exercise of design that dictated the premises on which I presents the theoretical subject. In addition to 'clarify', briefly, the reality of the mining industry based in an experience 'in loco' of the quarries in Marco de Canaveses, is exposed the process of designing infrastructure with an unusual program, almost like a kind of personal manual of the theoretical and practical mechanisms of a quarry, where industrial activity emerges as the protagonist. Almost like a journey through the personal process, the dissertation is split into three moments. The logic of the structure does not follow a chronological line but a contextualize the issues that accompanied the project. Each chapter will allow a balanced coexistence between practice and theoretical research. The first moment begins by introducing the project data, presents the thesis object and inserts it into the current reality of industrial buildings connected to the stone extraction. It features a baggage of knowledge linked to the quarries, obtained through a theoretical research and 'in situ', to give the reader a sense of the data I came across before starting the project. In the second moment, the content covered include the quarry's lexicon themes. The subjects approach the essential knowledge to better understand the reality of the extraction and transformation of granite industry. The third moment explain and expose the project decisions, the text is accompanied by sketches to complement the written information. The explored themes are in the sphere of architecture and show the creative process. This dissertation is the result of a composition, where the project is not presented as the final result, but as a previous study. The project is presented by decomposing in subjects this previous study of the quarry infrastructure.