Architecture, matter, and historiography: interfaces between technological investigation and historical research based on ceramic bricks in the city of Santa Leopoldina (ES)

Abstract

Considering the potential of building materials as a tool for historiography, this article analyzes ceramic bricks in the constructive system of the buildings at the Santa Leopoldina Historical Site in the State of Espírito Santo - protected at the state level in 1983. Beyond the need for documentation of traditional Brazilian construction systems and the indispensability of technical support for intervention in the constructed heritage, we address the importance of technological research in understanding the building process. The adopted criteria are based on a physical and mineralogical analysis of a sample group as well as an interpretation of this analysis, considering the historicity of architecture as a knowledge tool for society. As a theoretical foundation, there is a need to understand the raw materials used in the bricks, as well as the typical methods employed in the 19^th century for their production. Methodologically, the analysis involves laboratory tests for the physical and mineralogical characterization of the bricks. The results were correlated with the historical research on the production of ceramic bricks in Vitória, capital of Espírito Santo, between the 19th and early 20th centuries, and include considerations regarding the manufacture of ceramic bricks in Santa Leopoldina, helping to understand the constructive methods used by non-Lusitanian European immigrants who colonized the interior of the state from the second half of the 19^th century onwards