RE-ATLAS

Brutalist building
The Exploratory Project ‘Atlas of Architectural Heritage Design: Contributions from the School of Porto’ (H-ATLAS.Porto) intends to focus on redesign practices by architects trained at ESBAP (Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto).

The H-ATLAS.Porto project involves the following tasks:

  • 1. CONTEXTUALIZATION (international, national, regional).
  • 2. INVENTORY of works and selection of projects to be documented (c. 150).
  • 3. DOCUMENTATION of selected intervention practices (22).
  • 4. DISSEMINATION and knowledge transfer, through different actions: collaborative workshop and conference organization, publication of a digital book and a printed book, website, participation in conferences and publication of articles, among others.
H-ATLAS.Porto is framed within the UNESCO Chair ‘Heritage, Cities and Landscapes. Sustainable Management, Conservation, Planning and Design’ and contributes to the advancement of knowledge through the study and enhancement of Portuguese heritage and architecture within a national and international framework.

Objectives

  • Looking Deeper Looking deeper into the strategies of transformation and reuse, including technical and analytical drawings (plans, sections, elevations, red/yellow, construction details), as well as other graphic, photographic and textual documentation.
  • Compiling Compiling, producing and making available operational information both for students and for architectural practices on existing buildings.
  • Contribution Making a first contribution to a more comprehensive Atlas of Architectural Heritage intervention in Portugal.

Methodologies

The research project is supported by the cross analysis and interpretation of different sources (graphic, written, oral):

  • 1. Literature review and documental research (digital databases, libraries, archives);
  • 2. Interviews with designers, building actors and owners;
  • 3. Field work - in situ visits considering buildings as essential sources of information - comprehensive documentation (photographic survey, drone captions, 360º camera, drawings, etc).
  • 4. Drawing as a research tool, providing for graphic contents (geometric-formal studies; drawings 1) before, 2) demolitions/additions, 3) as built; details).
This investigation follows an inductive methodology and case by case approach, considering each object as a specific circumstance and starting point which may not be subject to generalization.

The research collects, analyses and disseminates interventions in preexisting buildings in Portugal, completed from 1947 (ODAM) to 2022, conducted by architects trained at ESBAP (graduated until 1986). Selected works follow the criteria of being prize-winning architects and designs (or honorable mentions), publication in architectural books and journals, reference in architectural guides, inclusion in academic studies (master's and PhD theses), consensual recommendation of relevant works by the panel of experts and critics, reasonable state of conservation (no significant alterations) and with available information.

Being an exploratory project, the inventory presented here is neither exhaustive nor conclusive, but rather a dynamic instrument in permanent update and suitable to be further developed in future research.