An activity of the project FÓRUM NADA NOVO, ‘Peças desgarradas: a origem dos materiais’ (Stray Pieces: the origin of materials) was a workshop held in January 2024 between the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) and the School of Architecture, Art and Design of the University of Minho (EAAD).
The workshop set out to explore the paths taken by the remains of the buildings we demolish to renovate cities and their potential for reuse, and to steer the participants ways of seeing through the perspectives of social value of material heritage, environmental sustainability and gender inequalities in construction professions.
Where are these ‘stray pieces’? How are the 'mines' where they accumulate distributed across the territory? abandoned buildings? demolition companies? construction companies? warehouses? museums? informal collections? scrap dealers?
In what ways can we qualify their ‘values’? What is their aesthetic potential? symbolic? spatial? political?
What socioeconomic processes have brought them here? What uncertain futures could they have?
Who are the people who deal with this hidden aspect of construction? and what are their motives?
The participants visited 4 different types of these ‘mines’, each corresponding to a theme (‘origem/origin’, ‘salvaguarda/safeguard’, ‘aproveitamento/exploit’, and ‘resíduo/waste’). They were challenged to create, in an exploratory and speculative process, symbolic objects that point to re-readings and aesthetic meanings that go beyond the reductive notion of a map as a utilitarian instrument for geographical orientation or the physical representation of a territory.
Photos: Mayra Derberg, Clara Vale, Jonny Pugh, Eduardo Baltazar, Ana Alvanéo, Ana Dora Dates:
24th January - 1st February 2024
Team NADA NOVO: Cidália Silva Cláudia Escaleira Jonny Pugh Clara Vale Rosinda Casais Alice Prata
Team Mulheres na Arquitectura: Patrícia Robalo
Team LAB2PT: Tiago Ascensão Sarah Shrbaji
Participants:
Ana Alvanéo
Ana Marques
Ana Dora
Paula Lage
Mayra Deberg
Michael Lambuth
Teresa Almeida
Ricardo Serafim
Eduardo Peixoto
Paulo Sousa
Rodrigo Pereira
Célia Barbosa Financial support:
Direção-Geral das Artes, Portugal.
Partnerships:
School of Architecture, Art and Design of the University of Minho (EAAD) / Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) / Pele, Porto / Women in Architecture (MA) / O Instituto, Porto / Materials Bank of the Municipality of Porto.
Support:
Rotor, Belgium / NEB goes South, European Union.
Institutional support:
Northern Regional Section of the Order of Architects (OASRN) / Portuguese Association for Urban Rehabilitation and Heritage Protection (APRUPP).