Initial Workshop of the Course of Architecture at the Catholic University of Viseu
27 and 28 September, 2012
Apple (Sul civil parish, municipality of São Pedro do Sul)
Production: Binaural / Nodar
As part of a partnership between Binaural/Nodar and the Course of Architecture at the Catholic University of Viseu, Binaural/Nodar will host a workshop that marks the start of the school year, which will be held in the village of Macieira (parish of Sul, Municipality of São Pedro do Sul). This workshop, which will be concluded on September 30th at the premises of the university, is also integrated in commemoration of the World Day of Architecture. During two days of field work, 60 students from the various years of the course will develop architectural analysis and projects related to possible rehabilitation of architectural structures and the urban perimeter.
Macieira is an emblematic village of the Gralheira Mountain Range, located at the foot of Mount St. Macário (where an immemorial annual pilgrimage dedicated to that saint takes place on the last unday of July, a saint that is also the subject of many local legends), has a quite reasonable size for a mountain village (over 200 people lived there about 30/40 years ago) and concentrates a myriad of situations, problems as well as potential structural changes. Traditional houses are built of granite, and there are several layers of evolution and adaptation to new building materials that have been appearing since the 70s.
For this village Binaural / Nodar and Aldeias de Magaio (a village network of the area) are considering the creation of a rural museum with ethnographic and multimedia components, including the Memory Arcghive of the Paiva and Vouga Valleys that is being developed together with French and Italian partners. In this structure, it is also considered a local products store and a space connected to the legend of the saint St. Macário with multimedia elements and images of popular iconography of the saint.
Also in this village there is an abandoned primary school belonging to the local association (partner of Aldeias de Magaio network), situated in a woodland area, where the said association plans to built an accommodation space for to young people, thus helping this representative entity of the whole community.
This school has a severely degraded roof (it rains inside), so as part of a partnership between the tile company CS Telhas and the University of Viseu, the costless replacement of the roof will be made during the course of the workshop, so that students can monitor the technical aspects associated with the intervention. This social intervention, to which others will follow, is a relevant aspect of the partnership between local organization and the academia, making possible to consolidate a mutual benefit project, on the one hand the connection of the academia with the surrounding rural context and on the other, to the profit of the territory because of the studies and work done by students specifically for local communities.
Finally, it should be noted that the studies and projects developed by the students will be presented still in 2012 to the community of Macieira, thus ensuring a fruitful confrontation and exchange of views between all concerned parties.
Binaural / Nodar Team:
General Coordination: Luis Costa
Coordinator of Architecture Area: Carlos Maria Valverde
Local Production: Carina Martins
Audiovisual Recordings: Nely Ferreira and Ricardo Frade