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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Renovation Old Ceramic’s Factory in Coimbra, Portugal by luisa bebiano | architect + Atelier do CorvoMay 24th, 2019 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: luisa bebiano | architect + Atelier do Corvo The building of Coimbra's Old Ceramics is located on the protection limit of the classification of the Rua da Sofia and Alta in the city of Coimbra (Portugal), included in the classified list of World Cultural Heritage sites of Unesco. Located in the lower part of the city, in a medieval yard that has mutated over time, the site is in an old alluvium zone, an area affected by regular floods. The surrounding territory was, until the mid-XX century, due to the geological and moisture characteristics, suitable for the manufacture of clay, the raw material of handmade ceramics.  Image Courtesy © Do Mal o Menos (Eduardo Nascimento)
 Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey This area of the city does not have strong winds nor any specific climatic condition of the region. Temperatures can range from 40°C to 15°C in the summer and 18°C to 0°C in winter. The building of the Old Ceramic Society of Coimbra was part in a vast (now extinct) cluster of ceramic production units from the 18th century in this area of the city, in connection to the University of Coimbra. This building is the only example left with distinctive features, and an important part in industrial archeology and heritage linked to the ceramics of Coimbra.  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey Being the only original factory still operating, hence its exceptional interest in industrial archeology, it was imperative recovering, preserving and recontextualizing its heritage, renovating the building and equipping it with museological conditions to expose its heritage, while keeping it's unique production. The production area splits over two floors: on the ground floor, the pottery section (whose circuit is with raw material and its indispensable storage supports) and the kilns section; on the first floor are located the glazing and painting sections.  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey Keeping the original building volume was followed by the option of maintaining the maximum of structural elements (carefully removing the overlapping elements, often reallocated), restoring most of the building and inserting new elements when necessary, but essentially maintaining the same crafted constructive processes. The kiln typology (18th century) corresponds to the depictions included in the studies of Charles Lepierre. The conservation and restoration approach was based on a non-intrusive minimal intervention strategy, allowing a constructive and functional interpretation of the unit, leaving the manufacturing marks visible.  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey Architectural solutions emphasize the continuity between the times, without ruptures. Completely built with exterior load bearing stone walls, pine flooring and partitions, it has several traditional elements such as brick, plaster and lime (outside). The structure of the building has been partially restored and relocated. The roof was completely redone given its advanced degradation, while maintaining the original volume of the building. The walls in stone masonry were structurally consolidated. The so-called “traditional mortars” were used for the exterior walls, based on slacked lime and finished with manual trowel.  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey With an irregular shape, due to the successive morphological transformations of this urban fabric, the building has two façades (the East and the West), allowing an adequate natural ventilation, with small openings. The whole building has an excelent passive energy behaviour, not requiring any mechanical ventilation. As a ventilation support, the building has the large chimneys of the old kilns, which acts as a natural ventilation duct with the excess heat, or is kept closed when one needs to keep a warm temperature (heated through wood stoves).  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Do Mal o Menos (Eduardo Nascimento)  Image Courtesy © Do Mal o Menos (Eduardo Nascimento)  Image Courtesy © Do Mal o Menos (Eduardo Nascimento)  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Do Mal o Menos (Eduardo Nascimento)  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Image Courtesy © Inês D’Orey  Location, Image Courtesy © luisa bebiano | architect + Atelier do Corvo  Axonometry-03, Image Courtesy © luisa bebiano | architect + Atelier do Corvo
Categories: Factory, Renovation |
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