Meeting the architects

To get inspired, we gathered with the team of architects at the recently refurbished apartment of Rita in downtown Porto. On the table/floor was again our beloved CABA. What to do with this crucial element - infamous for its myriad of metamorphoses it has known during the design process? By passing through so many different hands it had become an assembly of multiple concepts, ideas and solutions in danger of becoming some kind of “Frankenstein”.  Therefore - after some fine discussing - we agreed on a tabula rasa that would grant us the liberty to take CABA fully into our hand and to mold it into a clear and strong concept. And so we were send into the night each with the task to develop a concept for CABA “from scratch” with the essential remark that CABA isn’t to be OURS but EVERYBODIES. 

Tripping: Porto VIVO

On Monday José and Ana from Porto Vivo were so kind to take us on a journey through the history of the urban development and rehabilitation of Porto. In relation to the refurbishment program for Morro da Sé they took us on a walk through the area around the cathedral to point out some of the planned, ongoing and finished projects for the neighborhood.  

We were intrigued to see how the area is starting to move and it made us wonder how it will look like in let’s say 10 years ... encouraging and inspiring!

More info on the urban rehabilitation program for Morro da Sé.

 

Tackling the pending issues

What have we been up to this week? Well we’ve been working out some “pending issues”:

R. has been rocking the stairs, S. got the electrical project swinging, A. gave the acoustics a push, F. worked on detailing drawings and created an Arrebita!Porto Youtube channel, and our hero M. went on a journey to Lisbon to perform some mathematical magic with our partners from DIMSCALE.

To wrap the week up we made a trip out of town to visit YONOS who gave us a thorough explanation of their products, of which the mainline was of biggest interest to us. Thanks again!

Just plug in wherever you want 

S. Trying out YONOS mainline systems 

Love at first sight site.  New communication strategy for Arrebita!Porto.

We bet you would nothing but follow up all Arrebita!'s latest news while they are happening! Well, your smartphone can now help you achieve that!

Arrebita!Porto and LogoGrab teams paired up to ensure you can be updated with the latest  news on the project.

Arrebita!Porto has now fully integrated the LogoGrab technology [working on your iPhone and Android devices]. 

By using your smartphone, just run the LogoGrab application and point at Arrebita!Porto logos you find in the city center, on newspapers, on the web and wherever you discover them. 

Logograbbing Arrebita!Porto in the city center.

That's it! All the main Arrebita! information channels are at your fingertips: the official website, the blog and contact details, together with our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels. This is a whole new level of keeping in touch with the project, that has a bright idea behind itself: to use the logo as a carrier for updated project information.

Arrebita!Porto LogoGrab works on Android.

Arrebita!Porto LogoGrab works on iPhone.

Well, all of this is possible thanks to the support of the LogoGrab team. The young-and-bright Swiss-based team presented LogoGrab at the Consumer Electronic Show, in early January 2013: radio shows and interviews followed.  And the LogoGrab project went viral.  

We at Arrebita!Porto decided to use such technology to make our project even more accessible. Now you just have to LogoGrab Arrebita!Porto, and disclose all the latest news. 

All at your fingertips!

And now back to the project building details.Talk to you soon,

Arrebita! team4.

An Arrebita! state of mind

Another week passed by and it must be said: the rain was persistent! Armed with umbrella’s (or what’s left of them) and some good (and bad) humor we got to the Arrebita! studio anyhow and met some of our enthusiastic consultants:

On Monday a skype call with IQ Energy cleared out the ventilation scheme and the thermal behavior of the project. Later that day the engineers of NCREP  gave us a clear picture of the structural project. Subsequently on Tuesday Dimscale advised us on the choice of materials and finally on Wednesday LogAcustica joined us at the round table to help us out with the last pending issues according acoustics as well as some difficulties on “soundproofing” CABA.  At the same time, Teresa – an industrial designer from Mexico – joined the Arrebita! team via skype to help us optimizing CABA.

Indeed, though the project team 3 handed over to us was mostly finished we couldn’t help ourselves but giving CABA another shot and so the infamous “serving cube” ended up on the design table once again to receive – what we like to call – it’s finishing touch. 

Finally on Friday we had some unusual visitors: a multicultural team of architects that make up the Swiss office: STRATA wanted to know more about Arrebita! so José had invited them over to come and take a look at the Arrebita! studio. After a short presentation inside we bravely defied the rain again and showed them the house at Rua de Reboleira 42. Being back in the building made our hands feel more itchy than ever before  to start working on site and get this building healthy again. 

STRATA @ the Arrebita! studio

But for tomorrow, apparently it will just rain some more. Let’s hope the sky loses all it has stored for us, so when we’ll start on site, we’ll have the sun on our hands! 

  

We are Team 4. And we are here to rock!!!

Team 4 is in Porto! 

This time the international team comprises architects Madalena Madeira [Portugal], Sarah Louati [France], Flavio Carniel [Italy], Ruth Kennivé [Belgium] and Antonio Sánchez [Spain]. Beginning the fourth phase of the Arrebita! Reboleira project, spanning from January to March 2013, the five architects will showcase their design expertise in sensitive areas. As you already know, the historical building is in fact enclosed in the UNESCO Porto area. 

Let's hear what Team 4 has to tell us!

Team 4 in the studio. From left: architects Flavio C., Sarah L., Ruth K., Madalena M., Antonio S.

Our first day was awe-inspiring. We got to meet Tatiana -from Team 3- who helped us getting familiar with the project. She showed us the building and explained everything there was to know about the conservation project we were going to learn about.

Right after that we met another partner, quite unusual if you wish: the Bicycle Bank, "Banco das bicicletas" in Portuguese. After work we went to pick up our bikes, at ”Banco das bicicletas” and thanks to them we are now able to explore this amazing city. Porto has many ups-and-downs and we think it might be good to keep fit and learn about the "hidden treasures" of such a city.

José is keeping us pretty busy, which is great! From day one we begun meeting with some of the architects and engineers that are going to work with us. The effort they are sharing with us is remarkable: we couldn’t be in better hands. Other partners and consultants came to our studio to update the project status, so to ensure the construction project is moving. 

Being this a collaborative project, we are using a complex 3D model of the building. This choice was made so that the diverse detailed projects could merge into an organised model. The BIM technology ensures such a work can be delivered. For this reason, we had an intense ArchiCAD workshop to get familiar with the software technology we are using. Well, thanks to our Infor partner: Ricardo, from Infor, explained us every tool we will need to work with on the model. We are taking the BIM model Team 3 left us, and we are excited to get started.

ArchiCAD workshop. Team 4 with ArchiCAD expert Ricardo Garim Dias, from Infor.

Next days will be quite busy so we will have plenty of new good posts … Now we can´t wait to get inside the building and finally get the conservation project started!

Até já, Team 4.