REHABILITATION OF THE [PORTUGUESE] TRADITIONAL HERITAGE IN CONJUGATION WITH STEEL ARCHITECTURE

Heritage is defined in different ways according to the interests of each person. There are numerous combinations of the word heritage used to define something that belong to us, such as the personal, environmental, artistic, historic, cultural and architectural heritage or even the memories. In the architectural heritage, numerous examples through History could be named, being the Portuguese Traditional Architecture chosen and quite often found in ruins, empty of content, but full of memories left by time; many of them are occupied by the nature which took possession of these uninhabited scenarios. The rehabilitation of this type of architecture is challenging because it has, in my opinion, particular characteristics; this type of construction "[…] has neither tendency nor urban origins; they are housing clusters that arise from the need and population growth, use local materials which removed from this context lose their identity"[01]. They were built in specific areas to allow the subsistence of the population, at the time, and were abandoned due to the rural exodus. Today, these “ghost places”, which still have a strong and own identity, allow the architect’s reinterpretation of the way of living, combining the essence of the existing building, where there were few material and financial resources, with the reality and current need. The rehabilitation of the Portuguese Traditional Architecture as a heritage to be preserved, in conjunction with the Modular Steel Architecture, a reference of the fifties of the industrial age, is a delicate case of study. The traditional architecture consists of buildings "[…] simple, coherent and harmonious, that respond to a functional simplicity, framed in the landscapes around them [...]" [02] with many memories and a very own genius loci, where the conjugation with the steel architecture, allows the differentiation of the existing history of the new building, valorising them; besides the new dwelling is adapted to the current needs and respond to the rapid technological change and is recreated where a scenario full of memories and experiences is an added value