A Collection in Flames: Fire and Recovery of the Research and Documentation Center at FAU UFRJ

Abstract

This study discusses the conservation project at the Research and Documentation Center of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro following the fire that originated at the Legal Affairs Office of that university that impacted its core in April 2021. Funded by the Getty Foundation, the project recovered 17,164 paper documents and 7,374 photographs, a significant effort to conserve architectural and urban planning records in Brazil. This study describes the damage caused by the fire, detailing the emergency work to save burned, sootcontaminated, and water-damaged items; and outlines the methodologies adopted to clean, stabilize, and store them. Despite the lack of infrastructure and budget, compounded by the current precarious state of the building housing the center—the Jorge Machado Moreira Building at the University City campus—, the project managed to achieve significant progress in stabilizing and conserving the collection. This study emphasizes the need for public policies to conserve and prevent incidents in permanent collections and archival preservation areas. Despite substantial results, irreparable losses warns of the urgency of investing in preserving the national historical heritage.