Da Silva Ferreira, Fernando Pedro;
(2024)
Factory of Stories: An Architectural Texere from Vale do Ave.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
This thesis explores how the entanglements between textile-making, storytelling, and architecture can offer innovative research methodologies for architects to approach and reimagine the design of textile factory sites. The thesis departs from Vale do Ave, a post-industrial region in the northwest of Portugal, whose social and spatial realm endures under the shadow of recent deindustrialization, to focus on Coelima, a textile factory founded in 1922 but which has been under ongoing dismantlement since 1991. Building upon stories from the factory’s life, the thesis proposes to explore the concept of ‘texere’ as a practice for architectural design. This practice combines site-specific processes and tools, both textile and scriptive, to foster new forms of collaborative design involving Coelima’s buildings, its history, administration, workers, and local agents to achieve an equitable relationship between these entities' interests for the factory’s future. Texere is conducted as practice-led research developed through five design projects rooted in the theoretical framework of the ‘poethical.’ I borrow the concept of poetics with an added ‘h’ to argue that envisioning architectural futures for Coelima comprises a poetical and ethical wager, where the architect's responsibility and taking care of the relations between factories, humans, machines, work, and the world are constantly at stake. Methodologically, the thesis is propositional and self-reflective, constantly shifting its spatial and geographical position in, around, and outside of Coelima. It employs archival research, long-term and interdisciplinary collaboration, oral history, artefacts’ design, and ethical principles that resonate with textile art, storytelling, and architecture. The combination of five projects developed in the thesis offers an Architectural Texere: a tryptic methodology for architecture to collect, thread, and con-write stories in the early stages of design. I argue that these story-based yet cautionary methods can enrich the creation and communication of potential future design briefs for Coelima and beyond.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Factory of Stories: An Architectural Texere from Vale do Ave |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200165 |
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