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Livro de atas do Seminário reVer - Contributos da arquitetura vernácula portuguesa para a sustentabilidade do ambiente construído
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O Departamento de Engenharia Civil e a Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade do Minho, em conjunto com o Departamento de Engenharia Civil da Universidade de Coimbra, organizaram o Seminário “reVer: Contributos da arquitetura vernácula portuguesa para a sustentabilidade do ambiente construído”, que teve lugar na Fundação Manuel António da Mota (Mercado do Bom Sucesso, Porto) no dia 28 de março de 2015. No programa do evento pretendeu-se abordar a temática da construção tradicional, desde os seus materiais e técnicas até à reabilitação do património vernáculo, abrangendo ainda um conjunto mais alargado de assuntos que permitem identificar e compreender melhor o potencial contributo dos princípios utilizados neste tipo de construção para a sustentabilidade do ambiente construído. Para o efeito participaram no evento, como oradores convidados, um conjunto de personalidades que se destacam em Portugal no domínio da construção/arquitetura vernácula. O evento e esta publicação enquadram-se nas atividades de disseminação do projeto reVer “Modelação do desempenho de ciclo de vida de edifícios vernáculos portugueses – contributos para a sustentabilidade do edificado”, pelo que os organizadores gostariam de agradecer o apoio concedido pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), com a referência EXPL/ECM-COM/1801/2013, que foi fundamental para o desenvolvimento dos resultados apresentados pelos elementos da equipa de investigação.
Este encontro dividiu-se num conjunto de quatro painéis temáticos, nomeadamente:
Painel 1 – Princípios bioclimáticos e de sustentabilidade na arquitetura vernácula.
Painel 2 – Eco-eficiência dos recursos locais.
Painel 3 – Os sistemas construtivos tradicionais e sua reabilitação.
Painel 4 – Iniciativas para o desenvolvimento de territórios de baixa densidade e programas de financiamento.
A Comissão Organizadora espera que o Seminário reVer e os diferente temas abordados nos onze artigos presentes neste Livro de Atas contribuam para a discussão sobre os princípios de sustentabilidade presentes na arquitetura vernácula portuguesa, sua disseminação e desenvolvimento de competências para a conservação e reabilitação deste património. Aproveita-se ainda este espaço para agradecer a todos os oradores, participantes, instituições, patrocinadores e parceiros de divulgação que permitiram a realização do Seminário reVer e o desenvolvimento desta publicação.
Um especial agradecimento é dirigido aos patrocinadores, as empresas Schlüter System, Umbelino Monteiro, Tintas Robbialac SA, CS Telhas, Padimat, Augusto de Oliveira Ferreira (AOF) & Ca Lda, Delta Cafés e Paupério, cujo apoio viabilizou a organização deste evento e foi fundamental para a prossecução dos objetivos delineados.
A Comissão Organizadora,
Ricardo Mateus (Universidade do Minho, EEUM)
Luís Bragança (Universidade do Minho, EEUM)
Manuela Almeida (Universidade do Minho, EEUM)
Jorge Fernandes (Universidade do Minho, C-TAC)
Sandra Silva (Universidade do Minho, EEUM)
Paulo Mendonça (Universidade do Minho, EAUM)
Helena Gervásio (Universidade de Coimbra, FCTUC)
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... The global environmental awareness and the rising demand for environmentally friendly materials are pushing the sector to shift to the "sustainability" paradigm. Thus, the sector is slowly starting to adopt materials with lower embodied energy and other environmental impacts, and those that are more compatible, for instance, with the local climate context [59]. ...
Vernacular architecture is characterised by embodying and expressing a plurality of factors - geographic, climatic, economic and cultural - of the places in which it is located. In its long evolution, and inserted in a context of scarcity, a range of pragmatic strategies and building techniques of adaptation to the surrounding environment were developed. These strategies/materials are usually simple, low-tech and have a low potential environmental impact. From a sustainability point of view, several studies highlight them as having the potential to reduce the environmental impacts of buildings.
In Portugal, there are many expressions of vernacular architecture, whose specificities are an identity factor of several regions. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies on the thermal and environmental performance of vernacular buildings and materials in the Portuguese context. In this sense, this research work presents a qualitative and quantitative study of i) climate-responsive strategies; ii) the thermal performance and comfort conditions of different Portuguese vernacular buildings throughout the different seasons; and iii) the environmental performance of vernacular materials. The research focused on the study of three case studies, with specific features and located in three different zones of mainland Portugal. The thermal performance and comfort conditions of the case studies were evaluated through in situ monitoring of hygrothermal parameters, surveys on occupants’ thermal sensation, and the data analysed according to an adaptive model of comfort. To compare the influence of some strategies on the annual energy demand for heating and cooling, simulations under dynamic conditions for different scenarios were carried out. In the case of vernacular materials, although these are seen as ecological, the quantitative studies available are scarce and that allow establishing an equative comparison with conventional materials. Thus, the life cycle assessment of two earthen materials, rammed earth and compressed earth blocks (CEBs), was carried out and based on specific life cycle inventory values obtained from a producer company, following the guidance provided by the standard EN15804.
From the results, in general, it was found that the case studies have shown a good thermal performance by passive means alone and that the occupants feel comfortable, except during winter when there was a need to use heating systems. In the case of materials, in a cradle-to-gate analysis of different walls, the use of earthen building elements can result in reducing the potential environmental impacts by about 50%, when compared to the use of conventional ones. Additionally, earthen materials have the advantage that they can be recycled/reused in a closed-loop approach.
The living building concept (Rosmaninho, 2012), arises by opposition to the modernist “machine for living in” (Le Corbusier, 1923). Other namesake concepts of living building (McLennan, 2005, Armstrong 2012) echo the importance of this biocentric metaphor in describing an architectural approach rooted in a new regenerative, symbiotic and holistic development and sustainability paradigm, which has in the Permaculture movement one of its finest examples.
Studying the significance of this metaphor, we searched for its correspondence in the realms of Biology and Philosophy informing these ecologist design methods and their ethics. In this pursuit, we focus on a concept which might have a unique relevance for sustainability and even to understand Life itself and its architecture: the ecological niche as the living-building’s place.
The Niche Construction Theory argues that ecological inheritance is a fundamental factor for biological evolution and that ecological niche construction is an epigenetic evolutionary process in its own right. If Humanity’s architecture is one of the best examples of the impact of this process in a specie’s evolution, it surely is crucial to understand how a better knowledge of this biologically universal process could capacitate ways of life which are ecologically adapted, culturally adequated and technologically efficient.
Traditional ways of life find themselves also facing the challenges of this new paradigm. The Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, where the Monks of Bethlehem dwell, is located among the Alentejo and Ribatejo regions of Portugal, and conveys the experimental scenario where this process of eco-cultural niche construction shall unfold. Studying the pattern languages (Alexander, 1977) of the phenomenological ecology (Riegner, 1993) of the cork-oak montado forests, we try to conceive the micro-landscapes which
might intertwine the vocation of this monastic community and its cloistered liturgy with this ecosystem’s patterns and the rural architectures implied in its existence.
Vernacular architecture represents a great resource that has considerable potential to define principles for sustainable design and contemporary architecture. This publication is the result of an overall aim to produce a valuable tool for analysis regarding vernacular heritage through different assessments, in order to define principles to consider for sustainable development. This was possible through a comprehensive reflection on the principles established and the strategies to recognise in different world contexts. The present publication was the result of an in-depth approach by 46 authors from 12 countries, concerned with the analysis and critical assessment of vernacular heritage and its sustainable perspective. The book presents 8 chapters addressing operational definitions and synopses advances, regarding the main areas of vernacular heritage contribution to sustainable architecture. It also presents 15 chapters and 53 case studies of vernacular and contemporary approaches in all the 5 continents, regarding urban, architectural, technical and constructive strategies and solutions. VERSUS, HERITAGE FOR TOMORROW: Vernacular Knowledge for Sustainable Architecture is the result of a common effort undertaken by the partners ESG | Escola Superior Gallaecia, Portugal, as Project leader; CRAterre | École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble, France; DIDA | Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; DICAAR | Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy; and UPV | Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. This is the final outcome of VerSus, an European project developed from 2012 to 2014, in the framework of the Culture 2007-2013 programme.
Purpose Sustainability assessments of buildings using the life cycle approach have become more and more common. This includes the assessment of the environmental performance of buildings. However, the influence of the construction products used for the fabric, the finishing, and the technical building equipment of buildings has hardly been described in literature. For this reason, we evaluated the influence of the technical building equipment and its impact on the environment for different residential buildings. Materials and methods Five residential buildings were evaluated by applying the methodology of life cycle assessment (LCA) (ISO14040) expressed using quantitative assessment categories according to prEN15978. Results and discussion Results show that the optimization of energy performance has already reached a high level in Austria, so that the overall potential for possible improvements is quite low. Especially in low-energy and passive–house-standard residential buildings, the limits for energy optimization in the use phase have mostly been achieved. In contrast to this, the integrated LCA (iLCA) findings attribute a high optimization potential to the construction products used for the technical building equipment as well as to the building fabric and finishing. Additionally, the passive house shows the lowest contribution of the technical building equipment on the overall LCA results. Conclusions The iLCA findings suggest that it is recommended to include the technical building equipment for future assessments of the environmental performance of buildings. It is also suggested to use a broad number of environmental indicators for building LCA.
La construcción con adobe en nuestro país se remonta a la época prehispánica. Sin embargo, actualmente en muchos casos no se respeta un adecuado proceso constructivo, o se ha prescindido de la asistencia técnica calificada, generando riesgos y accidentes en la seguridad y salud de las personas. Por este motivo, se ha elaborado el presente manual, dividido según las necesidades de la costa y la sierra.