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Factory of Stories: An Architectural Texere for the industrial cosmos of Vale do Ave

March 31, 2022
Next week, wednesday (04-06), during the lunch break (13:45-15:15 o'clock), in the room 3.10 there will be a lecture of a guest teacher Fernando P. Ferreira. 
Fernando is Portuguese, and he is developing PhD project in Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in London. 
In his lecture "And Architectural Texere for the industrial cosmos of Vale do Ave" he will present his artistic research – it is a great opportunity to learn about artistic research method in architecture, specific process and interdisciplinary results.

More about his work:
 

Abstract

This practice-led PhD research argues that the poetics of storytelling practices might provide compelling architectural design methodologies for the architect to understand, approach, mediate and reimagine the future of industrial places facing social and spatial transformation processes. The thesis begins from the context of Vale do Ave, a region located in the northwest of Portugal, which is rooted in a long history of textile manufacturing (Alves, 1999, 2002), and whose urban realm endures under the shadow of cyclical economic textile crises (Pereira, 2012). It then focuses on Coelima – a textile factory located in the area, founded in 1922, which is in a current state of transition. Since 1991, Coelima has been dealing with a profound economic crisis, which has provoked spatial dismantlement and social change that might jeopardize the factory's future.
The thesis creates a live project that asks how the institutional archive and biographical oral stories related to the factory's life, combined with site-specific textile practices and events, might become necessary architectural methodologies to rethink Coelima's volatile future. The project explores how 'finding', 'texering', and 'confabulating' stories through archival research, collective acts of weaving, coding, (un)stitching, and performance might become meaningful methods for the architect to engage with the factory's past and present stories as a 'pre-condition' to design its future. While forging connections with related fields in art (Albers, 1957; Alys, 2002), 'ficto-criticism' (Frichot and Stead, 2020; Haraway, 2016), and narrative architecture (Havik, 2014). These methodologies are developed through long term collaborations with Coelima's former workers and interdisciplinary practitioners to propose a polyphonic and story-based architectural brief for Coelima, as a 'poethical' alternative to current architectural design briefs applied in Vale do Ave's industries.
This story-based architectural brief, or 'Architectural Texere', is found, co-woven, co-written, and co-performed as a story that might travel on its own through places and time. Aspiring to enable local workers, industrialists, architects, and Others to question ethical dilemmas, political positions, social responsibilities, and decision-making frameworks when (re)designing (de)(post)industrial cosmos like Coelima in Vale do Ave or elsewhere.

Short Bio

Fernando P. Ferreira is an architect, artist, and creative researcher between Porto (Portugal) and London (UK). His practice interacts with activism, art and urban research, storytelling, and textile practices. Fernando has collaborated with architectural practices in Porto (Portugal) and London (UK). He has taught urban studies at EAAD – Escola de Arquitetura, Arte e Design da Universidade do Minho. And he is the co-founder and director of Space Transcribers. This Portuguese non-profit organisation works through social and spatial practices of communication and mediation in collaboration with Portuguese public institutions. Currently, Fernando is a PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL in London. He is developing practice-based research that explores archival, textile and writing practices as poetical and ethical architectural methodologies, which together purpose an alternative story-based design brief that reimagines the future of a Portuguese textile factory under current dismantlement.

www.fernandopferreira.com
www.spacetranscribers.com

Cover image credits

‘The Bordered Cloth’ – Photo by Sara Ferreira [September 2021]
 

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