Sofia Aleixo
My interest in architectural heritage issues started by the end of the 1980's and since then I have been working and researching the topic, trying to understand more about historic buildings and their significance for today's life.
The process of remembering has always been a motive for conservation and a concern for our practice.
Memories play a significant role in people's identity and therefore, in conservation management.
In 2013 our work in the Lyceum Passos Manuel, the first purposely designed and built secondary school in Portugal, wan Europe’s most prestigious prize in the heritage field given to the most outstanding achievements in conservation: the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards, which recognises the excellence and dedication by architects and cultural heritage experts.
(Europa Nostra Awards have the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union).
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP: Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development (since 2016)
Supervisors: Dr. Nicholas Walliman and Dr. Aylin Orbasli
The process of remembering has always been a motive for conservation and a concern for our practice.
Memories play a significant role in people's identity and therefore, in conservation management.
In 2013 our work in the Lyceum Passos Manuel, the first purposely designed and built secondary school in Portugal, wan Europe’s most prestigious prize in the heritage field given to the most outstanding achievements in conservation: the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards, which recognises the excellence and dedication by architects and cultural heritage experts.
(Europa Nostra Awards have the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union).
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP: Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development (since 2016)
Supervisors: Dr. Nicholas Walliman and Dr. Aylin Orbasli
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Books by Sofia Aleixo
Papers by Sofia Aleixo
La intervención en el Convento dos Capuchos de Alferrara es el resultado de la interpretación del tiempo y del lugar, instalación y desactivación de la unidad paisajística donde se integra este conjunto edificado. Tras el abandono de las estructuras arquitectónicas, sus ruinas sugieren la inversión temporal en el sentido de que, aunque permanezcan como elementos de fuerte expresión identitaria, se encuentran en plena transición de sentido de su uso, por más que éste, subliminalmente, permanezca.
Nuestra propuesta es no reconstruir el Convento, pero interponer en el interior la idea de “astillero” fundacional de la obra. Este referente introduce la idea de que el Convento se encuentra estacionado en el período de su edificación y no en proceso de ruina. Se intenta de sustentar un proceso de mediación sociocultural de la presencia continuada del Hombre en la construcción del paisaje para continuar a disfrutar de éste, sin que se plantee la necesidad de (re)construir.
Abstract:
The intervention in the Capuchos Convent in Alferrara is the result of interpreting time and space, despite human action in the cycles of recognition, installation and deactivation of the landscaped unit where this built complex is integrated. After the abandonment of the architectural structures, their ruins suggest a temporal inversion in the sense that, although they remain as strong expressions of identity, they are at a transitional situation in terms of use, even though the original function still subliminally remains.
Our proposal does not aim to rebuild the Convent; on the contrary, we intend to introduce the idea of the foundational construction site in its interior, introducing the idea that the Convent is frozen in its construction period and not in a process of ruin. This intervention aims to sustain a process of sociocultural mediation of the continued presence of man in the construction of the landscape in order to continue to benefit from it without, however, needing to (re)build.
physical pre-conceived expression, although we have always in mind our cultural compromise as Portuguese citizens, the universalist architectures path, a systematic research for the reality that the physical space and/or the build objects that we will be working with/in, as for the cultural and social values concerning the site.
Nowadays, due to the growing damages in our landscape and the rampant sprawl of civil construction that recently afflicted our country, the social function of the architect in the process of
landscape transformation and value improvement is becoming, for us, very significant.
However we aren't only looking for the simple observation of the site, but specially for it's deepest feeling, for caching the right information that can highlight it's highest value, at times subtle or austere, mysterious or telluric, or even at times for memories
washed by the passage of time.
The site history shall be continued in time even if our option is to create a rupture. We believe that the transformation that will operate upon a certain reality shouldn't be simply reduce to a
functional program. We intend to associate to our intervention an attitude that promotes social and cultural relations between the past, the present, and the future.
Talks by Sofia Aleixo
Today, conservation of historic schools promotes debates worldwide among architects who face a major challenge of merging a new education layer in buildings that no longer provide the physical requirements for a new philosophy of education which is shifting from teaching to learning.
The literature suggests that conservation can affect cultural values. However, there is a lack of empirical research to support that assumption.
In this short presentation I will focus on the strategy designed to conduct a qualitative research of empirical conservation strategies in order to identify effect on values in post-adapted historic school buildings.
Honors and awards by Sofia Aleixo
La intervención en el Convento dos Capuchos de Alferrara es el resultado de la interpretación del tiempo y del lugar, instalación y desactivación de la unidad paisajística donde se integra este conjunto edificado. Tras el abandono de las estructuras arquitectónicas, sus ruinas sugieren la inversión temporal en el sentido de que, aunque permanezcan como elementos de fuerte expresión identitaria, se encuentran en plena transición de sentido de su uso, por más que éste, subliminalmente, permanezca.
Nuestra propuesta es no reconstruir el Convento, pero interponer en el interior la idea de “astillero” fundacional de la obra. Este referente introduce la idea de que el Convento se encuentra estacionado en el período de su edificación y no en proceso de ruina. Se intenta de sustentar un proceso de mediación sociocultural de la presencia continuada del Hombre en la construcción del paisaje para continuar a disfrutar de éste, sin que se plantee la necesidad de (re)construir.
Abstract:
The intervention in the Capuchos Convent in Alferrara is the result of interpreting time and space, despite human action in the cycles of recognition, installation and deactivation of the landscaped unit where this built complex is integrated. After the abandonment of the architectural structures, their ruins suggest a temporal inversion in the sense that, although they remain as strong expressions of identity, they are at a transitional situation in terms of use, even though the original function still subliminally remains.
Our proposal does not aim to rebuild the Convent; on the contrary, we intend to introduce the idea of the foundational construction site in its interior, introducing the idea that the Convent is frozen in its construction period and not in a process of ruin. This intervention aims to sustain a process of sociocultural mediation of the continued presence of man in the construction of the landscape in order to continue to benefit from it without, however, needing to (re)build.
physical pre-conceived expression, although we have always in mind our cultural compromise as Portuguese citizens, the universalist architectures path, a systematic research for the reality that the physical space and/or the build objects that we will be working with/in, as for the cultural and social values concerning the site.
Nowadays, due to the growing damages in our landscape and the rampant sprawl of civil construction that recently afflicted our country, the social function of the architect in the process of
landscape transformation and value improvement is becoming, for us, very significant.
However we aren't only looking for the simple observation of the site, but specially for it's deepest feeling, for caching the right information that can highlight it's highest value, at times subtle or austere, mysterious or telluric, or even at times for memories
washed by the passage of time.
The site history shall be continued in time even if our option is to create a rupture. We believe that the transformation that will operate upon a certain reality shouldn't be simply reduce to a
functional program. We intend to associate to our intervention an attitude that promotes social and cultural relations between the past, the present, and the future.
Today, conservation of historic schools promotes debates worldwide among architects who face a major challenge of merging a new education layer in buildings that no longer provide the physical requirements for a new philosophy of education which is shifting from teaching to learning.
The literature suggests that conservation can affect cultural values. However, there is a lack of empirical research to support that assumption.
In this short presentation I will focus on the strategy designed to conduct a qualitative research of empirical conservation strategies in order to identify effect on values in post-adapted historic school buildings.
The architectural typology of the monastery, as a place with accommodation rooms, was suited to receive a new use with similar functions, and thus from 1957 to 2005 Casa Pia, a Portuguese educational institution that provides boarding for needed children, moved from the city centre to the monastery. The modifications determined by this new use changed the historic place and therefore its values. However, the values ascribed to this place by these people, once children, have not yet been revealed. The purpose of this paper is to collect the memories from the last users in order to contribute to a better understanding of the sociocultural values of a dynamic architectural heritage as the Monastery of São Bento de Cástris.