We are proudly presenting our new facade!

After a lot of hard work on the facade provided by our fellow partners and the former teams, we are one step further with the process on site.

from old...

...to new!

In the beginning of this year team 8 started to work on the facade by making a complete diagnosis and creating a booklet, containing all the information they gathered. 
The condition of the facade was mostly good, considering all the years of abandonment and the lack of maintenance. 
Luckily no serious structural problems were detected, but there were still some cracks to be filled! Team 8's work also contained the decision of the colour of Saint Gobain Weber Portugal finishing products and we feel they did a very good job to match the surrounding neighbourhood.

Long shot of Reboleira nº42-46

Saint Gobain Weber Portugal provided us with their line of lime based plasters, which will work well with the existing wall. This plaster lets vapour pass through and will contribute to a better climate inside the building. The wall was finished off with weber.rev kal plaster that already contains an ink pigment inside it and unlike a paint will not be peeling off the wall in the humid climate here in Porto.

The help and the muscle work of team 9 made sure that all of the finishing products, provided by Weber, were unloaded and stored at our neighbour's, Mr Loureiro, building. Selidomus provided free transportation of the Weber materials from Aveiro to our dear Reboleira°42 and kindly lent us wheelbarrows to help us with the transportation of the materials to the building.
Team 9 also helped to mount the scaffolding and put the security net around it. They also made the decision about the colour of the wood work, concerning the windows and doors. We would like to thank our partner Envolvente for supplying the scaffolding!

Our contractor Topdomus did an incredible job on site. They removed the dirt and the old ink, removed the old windows, put the wooden soffit, applied the products from Saint Gobain Weber on the facade and repaired and finished the facade. They made sure that the gutter and the pipes were mounted and painted, as well as the rings attached to the façade near the roof and the wooden soffit.

Stay tuned for more insights about our new windows, provided by our partner Gercima, Lda. We are going to the building site to take some photos for you and supply you with the latest news.


We will only say this much: they are drop-dead gorgeous!

TEAM X

...has arrived and we had a very warm welcome by the former team 9 who were very kind to show us everything concerning our apartment and the office.

TEAM X  

We are Taavi Lõoke (Estonia), Katharina Lutz (Germany), Gonçalo Maçães (Portugal), Frida Randen (Norway) and Natalia Petkova (England) and we are extremely excited to be a part of the Arrebita!Porto project!

On our first day at the office the coordinators José, Rita, Daniel, Natalia and Pedro welcomed us with open arms and gave us a very detailed overview, about all the work that has been done so far.

It is simply overwhelming how much work and planning has been achieved to date by our former colleagues and team X can only quote team 9 and say: hats off!

The time has come....

to say goodbye.

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy, as we managed to wrap up the project and eliminated some outstanding issues. We enjoyed getting to the point on which we started knowing our building like the back of our hand and make a contribution to the design of the project. We worked especially in the ground floor as some changes in the structural project came up. By now we are happy to leave a very straight design and a clean ArchiCAD file to make the start for the next team as easy as possible.

After publishing the final photos of the model already on facebook it is time to present them on our blog, too. We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to work with Senhor Pacheco and are grateful for his dedication to Arrebita. Spending a lot of time in his workshop, we noticed that a lot of people stopped by to marvel at his work. Thus, we designed business cards as a little goodbye gift for him.

A welcome change of our computer work was the meeting with our most recent partner D_vise. They spent an afternoon doing different activities with us to assess our team work. We talked about how to improve the experiences in Arrebita for the participants. They take all the results into account to give feedback to the support team to improve the management of Arrebita. 

Sometimes life indeed makes a full circle. Our goodbye dinner with the José, Natalia, Rita, Pedro and Daniel took place in Maus Hábitos as our first lunch already did. However, as most of us will stick around for a little while longer it hopefully was not our last beer together.

If we have already thought this was a great night, Porto definitely taught us better. Since the moment we arrived here people has been asking us whether we stay for São João, the city holiday. Even though we have been prepared for this night of craziness in Porto, you have experience it to really understand its extent. Traditionally, people have a barbecue in front of their houses. The smell of sardines and green peppers will follow one all the way downtown where the fireworks illuminate the sky above the river. There are stages with all kinds of music all over the city and the streets are packed with people. Back in the days they used to tease each other sticking smelly flowers into each other faces. The flower has been replace by a less stinky but equally crazy version: plastic hammers, that make a high-pitched noise when you “hit” someone. Running through the city with our hammers, this was a night to remember!

So this is us for now.

We will leave with a lot of great memories and are excited to see how our dear Reboleira will turn out.

Take care,

Yours Team 9 

Done and dusted...

literally. 

The other day we had a belated spring cleaning at the building site. Everything needed to be ready for the German delegation. Once we started it was hard to stop us again, but finally we had to realize that we could not get rid of the dust entirely. Moreover we assembled some pillars to fix signal tape to make it 200% safe for our visitors. Probably photos will be able to tell a much better story about that day than words.

Before...

Broom and woman power

When we were done with the floor and covered in dust ourselves our partner SIGN brought the three light boxes. We had been designing them for few days and the result proved the time well invested. So by the end of the day everything was in place for the presentation.

Unveiling the light boxes

After Cristiano spent days and nights at Senhor Pachecos workshop we could finally marvel at that beautiful model of ours, as well. Have you ever seen such a detailed realistic model?

We neither. Our special and most sincere thanks go to Senhor Pacheco, we could not have accomplished that level of detail and precision without him. Also we want to thank the previous teams that already started with the structure.

Have a look at the pictures, did we promise you too much?

More pictures will be uploaded in the next weeks. Also check Senhor Pachecos facebook to have a look at his wonderful boats he does.

Nightshift

The model on its way to the site

So – cleaned building site: check; light boxes: check; model: check – all set for our German visitors.

After

The delegation arrived on Saturday around lunchtime. They actually came from the Institute for Urban Planning in Berlin (Institut für Städtebau Berlin) and were guests of Porto Vivo that organized the presentation of Arrebita as a surprise. Since they were so many, we had to split the group and Alina had to give the presentation twice. In German, of course. Even though the other Arrebitas could not understand too much, it seemed to be a good presentation. The delegation was impressed by the idea and engagement of Arrebita. So let's hope they spread the word of Arrebita back home in Germany.

After the presentation we really had the best reasons to celebrate our achievements of our halftime.

Of course we did not run out of tasks. There are a lot of things in the making right now.

As you might remember, we need to build the ground floor before we can start with the 1^st floor. Therefore we are designing a solution for it with our partner at the moment. We will keep you updated about that.

Besides that, we are testing a software by our partner 3Decide

It is called 360° and will allow us to add captions with the information or story we want to give on that component. They already took the first round of 360° of photos and we have started to select data we want to appear in the captions. Every three month there will be new photos so you will actually be able to follow the refurbishment process on the building site.

As soon as we are done with the first ones we will upload them.

Furthermore, we can proudly announce that...drumroll...we are done with the selection of our successors, team 10. It was two weeks of talking to very nice and talented people from all over the world. Nevertheless there are just five positions in the team and we had a tough time deciding with José. Shortly we will introduce them here. We are excited to meet them soon, even though we are sad at once, as it means our time is slowly running out. Four more weeks.

Doesn't time fly when you enjoy yourself?

So much to do...

so little time.

But finally we managed to get back to you and feed you with the most recent information and photos on the process.

After Envolvente mounted the scaffold it was still up to us to fix the net to the it. It took us while to overcome the respect for its height (which was definitely advisable). However, we finally got up there and curtained our dear Reboleira 42.

Our bride 

In the meantime the workers from Topdomus were busy taking out the rotten structure of the 2^nd floor to replace it with the new beams. So get a look at our beautiful new structure.

Before...

…and after: all shiny and new

Due to the still missing ground floor it will be not possible to install the 1^st floor at the moment, but we are on that. So we hope we can show you pictures of that one soon, too.

Besides, we are organizing the tools which are still missing. For example, steel brushes to take off the old paint and buckets to transport the old material or mix the plaster.

The last two weeks we were pouring a lot of time and energy into the model, since it really needs to be ready by the end of the week. We have been saying that for quite some time now, but the Senhor Pacheco's passion for detail more time consuming than expected (we were even cutting each plank of the cork floor). However, it is totally worth it. Every rendering will fade next to that model. Here is a little pretaste on what you can expect in our next entry.

Stay tuned. It is totally worth it.

Let's hope our real facade can live up to that…

The motivation to hurry up the process of building the model is the visit of a delegation of the Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs of Germany on Saturday afternoon. In addition to the physical model we prepared large-scale posters to be displayed on lightboxes, which will be produced by our partner SIGN. The delegation will be able to visit the building site and learn more about Arrebita. Chance brought it about that there is a German volunteer for the first time since the project was launched, so they will actually enjoy a German presentation.

We are happy to see that the idea of Arrebita disseminates further and further.

This is also reflected in the latest applications for the next team which we receive from all over Europa and even overseas.

Time for a small “commercial break” on our part:

We usually do not bore you with the stuff we do during leisure time, but we are going to make an exception in this case:

Last Sunday we took a tour through Porto, but not just any tour, we took THE WORST TOURS.

No worries. That is just the name of the three architects who offer it. They describe themselves as “a low rated tours agency for anyone who really doesn't want to be a tourist while getting to know Porto, the coolest city in Portugal“. Sounded pretty perfect to us and we were not disappointed. Gui - our tour guide - showed us around about 4 hours just interrupted by two stops to restore our energy with something cool and sparkly and the best (Portuguese) croissant in town. We learnt about the “islands” and how the city of Porto developed. Discussing the current economical situation in Portugal we learnt how people are afflicted with the austerity policy and how local activists take action. We saw occupied buildings and former shopping streets now totally abandoned contrasted with gentrification and “touristification” at its worst.

We got to know so much more than we can recapitulate at this point. Let alone the most amazing spot to see the sunset. So, go and book a tour! And of course, tell your friends.

Arrebitas and THE WORST TOURS

So this is us for the moment. The next entry will follow soon!

Team 9

Who needs a gym...

...if you have a construction site?

Last Wednesday it was finally time to let the drawings be drawings and to get our hands dirty. Literally!

The workers of our partner Envolvente started the mounting of the scaffold in the morning. By the end of the day we could marvel at the yet finished construction.

Due to safety regulation we still need to fix a net to the scaffold this Tuesday. So it is time to get up there for the first time and believe us, our dear Reboleira 42 never looked higher!

Does anyone suffer from vertigo?

While the mounting of the scaffold was well underway, Weber our main partner for the facade supplied us with material for the facade as well as for the interior walls and floors. Since, about 100 bags à 25 kg were obviously bit too much for our bikes, we were quite lucky to have Selidomus as a partner for the transportation to the building site.

Given the fact that our Rua da Reboleira is more of a small alley than a street, it was impossible to park in front of our building. Therefore, we needed to carry each bag separately from the street down to our building. Besides the driver of Selidomus and a handcar, the workers of Envolvente were kind to help us. Considering, that we could only carry one bag at a time whereas some of them even managed three, we were more than grateful. Who knows, how long it would have taken otherwise. Now the bags are neatly stacked in our neighbours ground floor, because the one in our building is as you might know non-existent. Thanks to Sr. José Loureiro, who lets us occupy space in his house.

In case you might wonder, why we did not store them in our first floors:

The week was not over yet. More material ahead!

Despite Good Friday, we headed to the building site to take delivery of the wooden beams. These laminated beams supplied by our partner Portilame are used for the reconstruction of the ground and 2^nd floor as well as the reinforcement of the 1^st floor.

If we had already considered the bags of mortar to be heavy, the beams certainly taught us better.

While we carried the few smaller beams with two to three people, we just managed the rest with the help of the Rita and Daniel. And we are talking about ONE SINGLE beam carried by the seven of us! We guess, we chose quite a symbolic day for this task, as many pedestrians commented with a chuckle. Again, the help of our Partner Topdomus who delivered and whose workers dealt with the major part of the beams was indispensable. Thanks a lot, especially since it was a public holiday.

 Beams unloaded, let's do this.

Sitting on the beams, it was all very well for us to laugh! 

…until we realized, that two people were not enough to carry one. 

Last but not least, we are going to unravel our little mystery about the colour of the windows on facebook! Our partner Gercima for the renewal of the windows dropped by to let us pick the colour, since all red are not created equal.

We asked you on Facebook: what color would you choose?

And...drum roll...we decided in favour of 3, which is RAL 3011 semigloss. Due to our partner, they will probably be ready to get installed in the beginning of May.

The winner is: No. 3 

Moreover, we do not want to withhold the latest pictures of the model from you. Sr Pacheco is doing a great job.

This week, Topdomus will start to replace the 2^nd floor and we will get the training by the technician of Weber, so we can start with the facade.

We could not be more excited.

Thanks again to all our partners, who helped us so much last week!

Everything starts falling into place due to them.

Make sure you don't miss out on our “picture of the day” this week. 

Here comes the sun!

This weeks weather was much more generous with Arrebita's Team 9 than the last one. 

So this put us in the right mood for some spring cleaning. „A tidy house, a tidy mind“, as they say. We went to the warehouse to get some shelves to organize the samples and model building material in our office. Besides, we prettied up José's meeting space: The models are displayed there now, so they don't gather dust and the wall shines in Arrebita colours thanks to the posters. Mission accomplished. 

The Tuesday started off with a very informative presentation by José and Ana from Porto Vivo – Sociedade de Reabilitação Urbana (Assosiation for urban rehabilitation). We learnt more about the reasons for the abandonment of the city centre which started already back in the 80s and its impact on life in the city. Moreover, they provided an insight into two of their latest projects. Later on a tour we had the chance to get a look at those in real life. Thanks a lot, José and Ana, for the time you offered! 

In the afternoon we had a meeting with our support group. After we spent the first week learning the ropes of the project, it was time to continue the work of previous teams. We mainly discussed the logistics for the upcoming works on the facade. Next week our partner is going to erect the scaffolding. Besides, we are going to pick up the around 100 bags à 25 kg of material for the facade with our partner for transportation. Well, we hope the weather will stay as sunny as it is right now, so we will be able to start work on site after the Easter weekend. 

Until then, we need to finish some paperwork and get acquainted with the different materials that will be used. Furthermore, we are happy to announce that the cooperation with Sr Pacheco on the 1:20 model was resumed. Eduarda and Elena are helping him. Stay tuned to get a look at the updated model soon! 

On Thursday we had the great opportunity to introduce Arrebita's work to a group of student from the TU Vienna. Being here for for only about ten days we managed to answer (almost) all of their question and felt that we know “our baby” quite well by now. It was real fun. Thanks Pedro for making sure everyone was safe on site! 

Hopefully, we see some of them again in the application phase for team 10! 

After a busy week we are now leaving work for the weekend to enjoy the sunny side of Porto.
  

Have a marvellous and sunny weekend. 
All the best, 

Team 9

Hats off to Team 9!

Arrebita Porto is happy to introduce you to the second team in 2014: Cristiano Pepi (Italy), Eduarda Vieira (Portugal), Diana Giráldez (Spain) and Elena Bejor (Italy/ Germany) aka Team 9.

After settling down in our new home and having a first glimpse at the beautiful city of Porto, we started freshly and full of energy into our first week.

The warm welcome meeting of José, Rita and Daniel was spiced with a lot of information about the project and its current status. Joana and Guilherme of Team 8 showed us around on the building site, giving us all the insider knowledge we will need to carry. In addition to that, they prepared a very well organized documentation of the extensive work they have been doing during the past three rainy months.

Moreover, we already got the chance to meet a very dear partner of Arrebita: Sr. João Pacheco, with whom we hope to finish the 1:20 model of the building soon.

Please visit his facebook page to have a look at his beautiful work!

To make sure we will be able to handle the files the previous team has left us, we received a training for the ArchiCAD, provided by our software partner Infor-Sociedade Portuguesa de Estudos e Informática Lda. We would like thank to Eng. Araújo for his time and our instructor Ricardo Dias for his patience and help.

Besides all that technical skills, we also did a team building session, which was held by THINKING-BIG. We learnt more about our fellow team members (including the support team José, Rita and Daniel) as well as ourselves through fun and games. Edite and Rita, both Portuguese psychologists, raised awareness for group dynamics and gave us very helpful methods to deal with the differences that naturally exist in every group.

Being forearmed with all that new skills, we are even more excited to be part of Arrebita and are looking forward to dive into the project on Monday!

We keep you posted!

All the best,

Team 9.