Jorge Machado Moreira building: inventory of materiality as strategy for preserving modern bulit heritage

Abstract

In this article, we present an excerpt from the doctoral thesis recently defended at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, which proposed to discuss the preservation of modern architecture in a more comprehensive way, expanding knowledge and the necessary attribution of value to the materials and construction technologies that constitute them, expanding their significance beyond artistic value, taking into account its materiality, as a document of its own history. We apply this reflection to the Jorge Machado Moreira building, built to house the National Faculty of Architecture. Present since the first plans conceived for the University City of the former University of Brazil, it is an exquisite project conceived by architect Jorge Machado Moreira and his team, who brings to this project the experience acquired throughout his career, in particular the contact with the team that designed the Ministry of Education and Health, of which he was part, and the influence of Le Corbusier. Improved knowledge of the conformation of this building and its constituent elements presents itself as a first task for any proposal for the conservation and
restoration of this building. To this end, we will present the methods and theoretical references used to inventory the building's covering materials, especially the ceramic element “lajotinha”, its characterization, deterioration process and state of conservation, as a way of creating a framework of information that serves as input for a future Conservation Management Plan for the Jorge Machado Moreira building.