Loading...
3 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
- Building the landscape. Rehabilitation and renewal of traditional mediterranean structuresPublication . Bragança, Carlos; Marçal Gonçalves, MartaOne of the main features of Mediterranean landscapes, particularly in limestone areas, is the terraced land frame, usually supported by dry stone walls. In addition to the scenic aspects and landscape identity, network compartmentalization established by terraces, property division walls, pathways and traditional paths, shapes ecological corridors that frame the different human activities. It is a structure whose conservation is particularly important in areas of intense human impact, or rapid transformation, such as the urban-tourist spaces of the Algarve, where the hills displayed by such structures form the background scenario. In order to put in value their importance for landscape conservation and evolution, this presentation will focus on the interrelated ecological, aesthetic, symbolic, socioeconomic and political aspects that influence the spatial distribution and image of the terraces. Of course, the values that local people can assign to their landscapes will be determinant, but specially at the Algarve, the role of tourists as outsiders must be seriously take into account. We then argue that the future of the dry stone walls structure must be prospected into the diversity of possible solutions about landscape development as the living part of a whole unit that includes the densest urbanized areas with less ecological functions. We call such unit the urban-touristic region of Algarve, inspired on two utopic references: the ‘urban regions’ and the ‘Agroplia’. It means that we try to use landscape as an instrument of knowledge and acknowledgement –democratic governance– of regional spaces.
- Territory and drystone walls. Comparative of case studies in central and southern PortugalPublication . Marçal Gonçalves, Marta; Prates, Gonçalo; Pérez-Cano, María Teresa; Rosendahl, Stefan; I. Lombillo; H. Blanco; Y. BoffillSince becoming settled, Man had the need to shape the territory in his benefit, gaining ground for agricultural activity. Drystone walls were the way found to overcome sharp slopes. The way these walls are arranged in the territory is not random, as it may seem at first glance: they are disposed in the best way to facilitate the agricultural activity, taking into account the natural factors of the territory where they are located, such as orography, climate or geology. Taking as study cases two regions in Portugal under slightly different climate regimes, one located in the Algarvian Barrocal and the other located in the Center, we intend to compare and advance with explanations as to the way drystone walls are disposed and their relation to the territory. To achieve the objectives bibliographical and photographic studies, as well as interviews with the inhabitants of these areas, and cartographic and field surveys were carried out. Whereas the purpose, materials and construction characteristics were achieved by the previous, their disposition and relationship with the orography were carried out by the latest. Particularly, field surveys were made by digital stereophotogrammetry applied to several overlapping nadiral photographic images from different perspectives acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle along its flying pathways that allowed for very high-resolution geographic data. Where such surveys were not made, cartographic data were used instead. Through the dissemination of such vernacular heritage, it becomes valued and known. In this way, people will attribute cultural and patrimonial value, protecting it, especially the local population that tends not to attribute any value to this “minor” heritage, contributing to its disappearance. There are still not much works about this subject in the areas analyzed here, so this paper has an added value, in order to disseminate and create added value to these kind of heritage.
- Characterization of the dry stone heritage of the Barrocal region (Algarve, Portugal)Publication . Balsells, Cèlia Mallafrè; Marçal Gonçalves, Marta; Jover, Agustí Costa; Pla, Sergio CollThe paper aims to value the diverse and important dry stone heritage located in the Barrocal area (Algarve, Portugal). The dry stone construction technique and the set of constructions that derive from its application are present in all parts of the world where stone is present. Throughout the Iberian Peninsula and specifically in the territory of Portugal, there are different dry stone constructions that make up the rural landscape. They are an example of the work in the field and the use of local natural resources during different generations. The recognition by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (2018) highlights the importance of maintaining a construction technique that, transmitted orally, is materialized in different constructions according to the constructive heritage and the stone typology of the nearby environment. The study focuses on a specific partially cultivated area of the Barrocal where different types of construction of dry stone elements exist. Starting from the contextualization of the studies carried out throughout Portugal, the predominant dry stone constructions of the Barrocal, the area with the greatest presence of a variety of types of the Algarve, are being identified, recorded and analysed. The work provides a classification of the present constructions in the area linked to their use and provides data on the construction characteristics and the typology of the stone. The knowledge of these constructions makes it possible to explain the economic and social context of a certain period and to plan reactivation measures for other economic sectors not linked to tourism. The Algarve, one of the most touristic areas of Portugal, has focused most of its economy on beach tourism, leaving the cultural and dry stone architectural heritage almost unnoticed.The constructions and the dry stone construction technique are a way of preserving the rural landscape and the cultural memory so that the benefits related to ecology and biodiversity are observed through this document.