Celebration Week presentation notes

1             Project is in Fontainhas a zone in Porto, Portugal’s second city.
Is usually caracterised as a slum area often illegal or semi legal or just neglected housing.
I don’t have a name for the project but this quote expresses my concerns.
“THERE IS NO-ONE EASIER TO STEAL CULTURE FROM THAN THE PERSON WHO DOES NOT KNOW THEY HAVE ONE”

2             Is on the northern slope of the Douro’s river.
These are half demolished houses. We are under Porto’s mainline railway which runs the length of the area.

3             Last year I and a group of friends entered a competition organised by Porto Vivo, the development agency, for revitalising the riverfront of Porto. Our methodology was based upon ‘six degrees of separation’ a research study on the basis of conversation which led to a series of proposals for the riverfront, part of which includes the whole area of Fontainhas.

4             This is the contract I made for the free unit stating my intentions.
My main one was and is to apply the principles of our earlier competition entry to the particular community of Fontainhas.

5             This is what Fontainhas used to be in the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th. A romantic landscape.

6             And today a lush rocky nature intermingles with faded infrastructure and many dwellings.

7             But it isn’t just that. It’s a mythic and historic place in the population’s heart, Orvalhada ‘blessed mist’ is a summer solstice festival which takes place in Fontainhas and was stolen by the catholic church and turned into the city’s main festival, Sao Joao, still centred on F.

8             This is a photo of Fontainhas from my house in Porto. This is how it is perceived by the people of the city.

9             My past collaborators became friends of the project. I set up a system of postal correspondence so we could continue a conversation about Fontainhas. I also set up a blog for more informal and public dialogue.

10             Bairros & People
Fontainhas is divided into Bairros, quarters, which are intimate small scale communities. I have engaged with five of them, three of which are considered illegal of which all are in the Bonfim-administered end of the area. I started a dialogue and friendship with at least one person from each Bairro.

11             We were asked to make a gift to someone or something as part of our projects. I chose D. Belmira, a retired woman in Bairro no. 50 of Corticeira. This is her house. The bairro used to have 19 families. Today there are only four occupied houses.

12             “I never feel rain, I never feel wind, but I would like to have Sun in my life and a view out of my window.” Dona Belmira. My gift took two forms. The first was to help her overcome the bureaucracy involved in finding a new home.

13             The second part was to see if her existing home might be able to satisfy her needs.

14             HER NEEDS— – Provision of natural light – – Provision of toilet within the home — Reduction of ambient humidity in the home, particularly owing to her asthma. – A sense of community —
– More space. (currently lives in 21sqm)

Beyond D. Belmira, the project was a first test of more universal ways that could make Fontainhas continue to be viable to its existing residents, and also provide refurbished homes for new residents.

15             This week the winner of the earlier riverfront competition was announced.
It wasn’t us, but more importantly it was a highly corporate and uncontextual scheme.
“Creation of LUXURY housing associated with a leisure zone and a playground on river’s front with a marine. Also network lifts should be provided to connect level split . A public-private investment of 18.7 millions Euros.”

This winner gave me a new energy to the current project in Fontainhas.

The idea of luxury is I feel dangerous in this context.

16             LUXURY here means:

Removing the existing community

Removing or overwriting culture

Compromising Porto’s goal of maintaining a viable mixed community in the centre.

17             All along my project has been about maintaining and revitalising what Fontainhas already is. Now in the context of the threat of luxury it has become clear to me that Fontainhas needs to form a unified and singular stance as a specific community in the context of Porto. The current proposal is to form a single parish of Fontainhas, and to delineate a project which a non-bureaucratic kind of Parish, a multiuse facility which embraces current disused pottery manufactory site, a café, a library, a practical learning centre, a forum, a maybe even a mist catcher….