Within the scope of the International Project REVINTAGE, a set of activities were carried out. One of these activities consisted in visiting spaces that host national heritage. The main objective was to investigate how we can help people involved in the professional teaching of construction and design to gain knowledge about preservation and restoration of authentic elements of interiors, through modern means, such as the collaboration of professionals in the field of interior preservation.
To develop the activity, each country involved made a study visit to a site according to the object under study: in the Netherlands participants visited RIBO, in Hengelo; Malta participants visited Palazzina Vincenti in St. Julians, Balluta Bay, where they had a lecture about the life and work of the architect Gustave Vincenti; and in Portugal the visit was to the Bank of Materials, in Porto (https://cultura.cm-porto.pt/museus/banco-de-materiais).
In the case of Portugal, participants were twenty students from the Professional Tourism Technician Course, from Externato Senhora do Carmo, Lousada (https://senhoradocarmo.pt/); and five teachers from the areas of Tourism, Communication, History, English and Geography.
After the visit, two focus groups were held to discuss the topic based on a set of questions that sought to collect data, among other aspects, on the role of the visited institution in the preservation and sustainability of national heritage.
After analyzing the data, it was possible to conclude that, for the participants in the activity, students and teachers, the Bank of Materials carries out interesting, useful and thoughtful work, which promotes the culture and history of Portuguese heritage, as exemplified by the following testimonies:
I was surprised by the fact that they were very well preserved and conserved until today, since they belonged to old buildings (Student, Portugal).
The rigor with which preservation and preservation techniques are applied allows materials to have a “new life” (Professor, Portugal).
To stay informed about MAERA’s initiatives, access https://www.maera.pt or to https://www.facebook.com/maeraresearch
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