Tuesday, November 20, 2012

First piece of the cake


Hi Arrebitas !

It has been a long time since our last post, and we apologize for that. Lots of good news and interresting visits were keeping us busy these last few weeks.

Last Wednesday we had the great opportunity to visit Jose Barbosa and his company., ‘Idade do Ferro’ or ‘Age of Iron’, His company is the heritage of his father and grand father, and he is helping us realise a number of our design solutions in metal.
We were very excited because the first stone of the building has been completed ! Actually it’s not a stone but our stainless steel system to close the middle door from inside.


Team at the Iron Age company

the first piece of the building !

test for the frame




On Friday, our engineering partners Rita and Daniel introduced us to a couple of their friends who gave us a demonstration of thermal imaging and let us play with their fantastic thermal imaging camera. We love fancy toys as much as the next guy ! But apart from being a lot of fun, the camera was also used to identify areas in the building where water was seeping in.  We are still waiting for the images, but will be sure to post them next time !



thermal vision


After a busy week last week we were rewarded with a visit to Jose’s grandparents in the beautiful Douro Valley, where the nicest company and most delicious portuguese cuisine awaited us! Pilar, one of our architects gave us a tour of her piece of paradise in her family’s olive grove near Mirandela. I think we’re all eager to return this weekend too ! Thank you to everyone for a great weekend !







Otherwise, as you may have noticed , we are at the end of November and reaching the end of this project stage, and our work on site has yet to begin.  There are a number of outstanding aspects of the project which our team must conclude. This week we are set to receive the remainder of the technical projects and conclude the design phase, which we are very excited to share with you at the end of the week !

A te jà !




Sunday, November 4, 2012

Arrebitas on wheels


Hi Arrebitas !

Last time we showed you how much fun we had starting the demolition, but before we continue destroying walls and ripping layers of the floor in the building we have some tasks to complete.  For example, waiting for the archeologic report, concluding the neighbours inspection, receiving the last technical project…In the meantime, while this is happening a lot happened this week.First of all we appeared on Biosfera program about sustainability on the Portuguese channel 2 (where you can see us working in the building, and Zé talking about the project) http://www.rtp.pt/programa/tv/p24778/c97419On wednesday, Tatiana spent the day with DIMSCALE to work on final decisions of material system. It was usefull to spend the day with them because many questions were answed.While this was happening, back in the studio the team was meeting Secil Argamassas, the concrete partner. And soon we will do a road trip to their factory in Leiria.


DIMSCALE meeting


On Friday, Pigma (Conservation / Restauration partner) invited us to a building they are working on : Casa da Prelada, here in Porto. This is building designed by Nicolau Nasoni in the 18th century. Pigma team are doing a great job there !  We were very impressed by there ability and patience, especially for the little details of the ceilings.





In the afternoon we picked up our new bikes refurbished and supplied by Eco-Riders Banco das Bicicletas! Now Arrebitas are on wheels ! Let see if we manage ride the slopes of Porto !


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Talking about demolition…

We are delighted to announce the start of a new step in our project, the cleaning of the building !
 

Cleaning team
 
Everything started on a thursday morning….
The first archaeological research had to be prepared, so we all went to the building to start cleaning the basement. We felt like Indiana Jones in the jungle, going across the spider webs, the mud and the liquid residues from neighbors. We started to lift the floor to let the archaeologists start their assessment, and then we stumbled upon rock. Whether there’s treasures underneath, we don’t know ! The ground floor must be removed to rid the basement of the temporary supports and make the space safe, so the work will continue once the contractors get on site !

our basement like you've never seen
Marco digging
basement floor : rock

With that, we began getting carried away with the excitement of demolition by moving up to the first floor. Our first victim, the box at the entrance. Luis made short work of that ! And the top layers of the floor didn’t put up much of a fight. So it was good to finally get on the site and begin the real, physical work on the building, and vent our frustrations at the same time ! Once the contractors get on site and can help us with the more tricky parts, we can really get the site work underway.



                                                                      Mexican hatch video





We also paid a visit to the neighbors to survey their appartements. Because we are conducting work that could potentially cause damage to surrounding buildings, through vibrations, movements etc, we need to assess their condition and ensure any claims made by the neighbours were in fact our fault ! So that means photographing every crack, every damp patch in the building. Not an easy job !

Tatiana TV show visiting the neighbors

We hope you’re as excited to finally see our precious building changing shape, and soon we'll give you more !

Friday, October 19, 2012

7th Report

Thanks you for coming to our 7th OPEN WORKING DAY ! It was very helpfull. We are so glad to have so many people working with us ! 


OWD at InterContinental Hotel
For those who couldn’t make it, here you can find all the presentations, starting by our own,



Then Tiago’s presentation for NCREP,











Rita and Daniel’s for water supplies presentation,








Tiago’s for LogAcoustica,







































And the Archeologist’s prensention for Dryas








The technicals projects are arriving one after another, and the big picture is getting more and more precise !

In the next post….the firsts photos of us destroying things !!! Be ready !