Second Open Working Day

This has been a busy week. At least half of it was really busy. With the open working day coming up, we had a lot to prepare for the Wednesday. We build two models, one of the entire house in 1:50 and one of the box in 1:10. Pictures of these will follow.

The open working day was a great success! We presented our work and thoughts so far, and it raised some good discussions. For those of you who could not be there on Wednesday we put here our presentation.

Basement

Ground floor and new mezzanine

First and second floor

View from apartment on second floor

Flexibility for a different use on first floor

Open working space on ground floor

Also NCREP, Dimscale and Magnetic fields presented their view on the project so far. Tiago Ilharco from NCREP had a very informative presentation about the statical consequences and possible solution in our project. Paulo Sarabanda and Rui Rigueira from Magnetic fields presented different possible solutions concerning energy supply and savings, and solutions for ventilation and heating. It is good to have them on board, and we are looking forward to learn more from them about the technical aspects and consequences of our designs. Finally, Dimscale presented a their thoughts upon materials, and adapting solutions to the material dimensions. 

Discussing with Dimscale

After the general discussion, we also had a workshop with Dimscale about cost management and quantity surveying. But interesting discussions are luckily difficult to stop, and a lot of the afternoon was also used to discuss alternatives for the box. New alternatives for materials where put on the table, like polycarbonate. We want to give the box a touch of something extra. Finishing the day with a toast to the great day, and for the birthday of Artur. Dimscale also has a great blog following our project. Worth visiting!

Debriefing the day

Thursday was spent in Matosinhos with Ricardo at INFOR. In addition to help us with problems we have ran into with ArchiCad so far, we had a great introduction to Artlantis. This was really inspiring, and you should all look forward to our next presentation! And with the end of the day spent at the beach, Thursday was truly great. 

And after a full week, Friday was a day for brainstorming over the discussions and input we have had during the week. A good start of the next period of working. 

And then came the weekend, this time with a warming sun. Go Porto!

Our first designs

Things are happening quickly these days. We started designing the transformation only two weeks ago, and on the open working day on Wednesday we will present a project. This week we had a new tutoring with professora Teresa. Useful as always. We realized that the lack of precise measurements of the building is getting very problematic, so with the help of Daniel we tried to get a feeling of the true sizes. But with this old and irregular building, it proved difficult. We are really waiting for the people who are going to secure the building to give us the opportunity to see the yet undiscovered parts and send some professional measures. On Thursday we had a skype conference with Dimscale, discussing our draft project. And on Friday we went to see NCREP for the same reason. Both very interesting and useful discussions! We are looking forward to more discussions on the open working day.

Discussing with NCREP in their nice office

On Wednesday we sent a draft project to some of our partners, Dimscale, NCREP and Magnetic Fields. There is still a lot to be done, but it is good to discuss the ideas we have so far with our consultants and experts. We will also post the pages we sent here on the blog, to keep you updated. And feel free to comment or give us tips! A lot has already happened since Wednesday, but better late than never. We want to give you a feeling of where we are heading, so here we put some simple drawings of the existing and the new, and some principles describing some of our concept and challenges to our consultants. The exciting continuation you should come and see on Wednesday!

The last week of April

This week began with everybody working individually for the first time. Every member had the task to create his own concept for architectural/spatial and programmatic solutions of the building. Our “deadline” was on Wednesday, because we had arranged a meeting with Professora Teresa. Also, it was on the 25^th of April, the very significant holiday dedicated to the Carnation Revolution! The day when “nobody” works. :)

Tutoring with professora Teresa

 We designed more than 10 different possibilities, and on Wednesday presented those to Teresa. That meeting was extremely inspiring and after a long and productive discussion about our proposals, we chose the good things from all different projects that we will try to integrate into one solution. This meeting was probably the most important until now and was the moment of defining our designing concept!

We started to think about two main things that we wanted to do:

- ”to empty the box” (which is the building)

- ”to design a living box” (inside the existing building)

So, from the end of that meeting we started to design flexible boxes that can adapt to all kinds of apartments. We were thinking about various solutions like a small box for kitchen, bathroom or bedroom, but also about the different combinations of them integrated into just one. To make things more realistic and better to understand we decided to make a model (a big one, in scale 1:20) so we can try to put in all our new boxes!

On Friday, we met again with Susana Pacheco Barros, because she had so many things to tell about historic aspects of Porto, that the meeting we had the week before wasn’t enough and we asked her to arrange a new one. This time, she took us for a walk and told us a lot of amazing stories about Porto that we (and probably the most of the people who live here) didn’t know!

With the view of Porto

After the tour we continued to work with our box solutions and building the model… Here are some photos of the atmosphere from the office!

Filip

Cristina

Guido

Ingrid

Working

Eva

Next week, we will share with you also the drawings and models that we have made!

This third week!

This last week started with the great company of the teacher and architect Teresa Fonseca. Professora Teresa will be our tutor representing the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Oporto.

After we present some ideas of what we are doing, this meeting became like a melting pot where we discussed the rehabilitation philosophy and a future program. Besides that we also put on a table some good examples about what has been done in the city in the last decades. We talked about some political questions and how to turn the new program in a new way (even if small) of contaminating all neighbor and, who knows, all city center.

“A city who prostitutes herself to the others, may bring diseases”, a city lives from its own community and not for foreigners to see. In this way on one hand we have here a great opportunity to create something socially new,and on the other hand to draw a standard prototype for future rehabilitations in the historical center.

As architects “we have to feel the sensations of the street”, we have to see people's behaviors and observe everything around, before we can make any decision.

On the same day, 16^th April, we went to have a walk on the street of Reboleira with Catarina and Joana, both architecture students. We were there to know what is happening in situ, who are the people that still live or work there, which are the companies and associations that function there and some other historical facts about the buildings.  

On Tuesday we reviewed all our structural report in a meeting with NCREP, to prepare our public presentation the day after. On Wednesday, our first open working day has finally arrived (you can see more information in our related post). We finished the day with a nice dinner with all Arrebita team as well as many others partners that also came.

Seminar in Casa do Infante

Last Thursday we had also an important presentation with the architect Ren Ito. He talked about the Sabiamente Study Center project, an example as it is possible to rehabilitate a building with short resources.

With Ren Ito

Today, friday, we started the day with the historian Susana Pacheco Barros. She told us about some historical facts and about some curious characters that lived there as “Toninho da Ribeira”, and that can be a future inspiration for us. By the way, if you know any information that could help us please comment!

History lecture in the studio

Open working day presentation

We have had our first open working day and would like to share our presentation here on the blog. The goal for theese first two weeks was to get an overview of the history and social conditions of the building, the condition of the structure and damages, the spatial characteristics and to comment on possible programs.

The presentation you can find here, but we will also try to explain briefly our results and present our programatic discussion.If you have any comments or suggestions, let us know. We would appreciate your opinion.

Historic review

The historic information we have about the building is very limited. We know that the plot and street is old, but have no information about the current building structure from before the 1980's. We know that this building has housed a salt storage, a primary school, offices and a rowing club. We have a few drawings from the 80's, but they are very scarce.

Structural survey

We have tried to give a status report on the structure of the building. How is it made, and what is the current condition of the structure and materials.

The building has a traditional construction with loadbearing partitioning walls in stone and wooden floors and roof structure. The wooden parts are the most damaged and critical. condition varies from elements we have to replace to elements that just need new finishing.

Tests were made together with the engineers at NCREP, using the amongst others the resistograph and the hygrometer. We will finish this survey when the building is secured so we can also enter the basement and the roof.

Spatial survey

Our building is situated in a narrow street with limited light on ground level. The building has a rather simple footprint, 13 meters long and 5,5 meters wide, and today the stairs run along the partitioning wall. Our biggest challenge will be the daylight conditions. As the building has only one facade the light is poor in the inner parts of the house, but skylights provides the second floor with much better conditions.  

Programatic discussion

We still don’t have final decisions about the programmatic solutions, but we have some opinions and attitudes, and we would like to share it with you with a hope that you will get into the discussion. Feedback from you would be very helpful.

One thing that seems to be quite definitive at least at this stage of the project, is that the program is going to be divided by levels:

- ground floor + basement will have some programs for the community (whatever it means at this moment )

- 1st and 2nd floor - housing

Housing:

Regarding the housing, if we consider the city context and the dimensions of the historic buildings in that area, both of the upper floors have enough space to be independent living units – 63 square meters first, and 70 square meters second floor.

The main challenge for us will be to design a lightening solution for the apartments. We are already discussing about possible solutions like: adding a new floor or making a hole that can conduct light from roof to the 1st floor…

Why housing?

Because the spirit of Arrebita is about SOCIAL problems, about the people, about domestic people, about bringing them back here, in the hearth of the city where they belong… We are creating the ALTERNATIVE solution! For instance, the theme of tourism is very important for income of a city, but strategies already exist in that sphere. And we want to make something different, even if right now this project is not a solution for the entire problem.

People make a city; the city is people, not a museum where someone can just walk around and take a nice photos. A life is happening there, something realistic, and it should be the thing that Porto will be most proud of. Of its people.We want to bring people back, even if it means that maybe only two families or two young couples can be happy at the first moment. They will be, as we said, the example, but also the injection and the beginning of a great impulse that will spread…

Ground floor and basement:

Basement can be used as storage of a ground floor user, or can be divided between this user and the people who live on the upper floors.The lightening problem in the ground floor is not as big as on the 1st floor because of the different functions of these two spaces. This is not a space for living and it doesn’t necessary require natural light, so the electrical lightening systems can also be used…

Program in the ground floor…? Maybe it is something completely simple and supremely practical like a bakery, a pharmacy, or any kind of store that is supposed to be used every day from the people who live in that area… Or a few different activities that can work together… Maybe it will be the future Arrebita office like a proof and a motive for the neighborhood that something is really happening and changing, that somebody is now here, that the area they live in is not on the margin, that people actually want to come…Maybe even that youth has come, because youth is the future...

Conclusion and attitudes:

Our goal will be to design a building that is as adaptive, universal and flexible as possible!

We still don’t know who will use it, and that’s why our solution has to offer different ways of using it. For example, our primary goal will be to have a two separated living units on 1st and 2nd floor, but also, we will consider a possibility of a potential user who would like to merge these two floors into one apartment.

This project must not be observed as an example with unique problems and needs, like it is cut from time, spatial and social context. It should help us to found new principals of refurbishment. It has to be a good example, prototype and a model for all of the future projects...