W(E)AVING, as the names implies, proposes an intervention on Via Catarina’s facade that addresses and combines the themes of weaving as a constructive method and waving as the final result and visual effect. This approach to the weaving concept is both objective and metaphorical, since the project intends to unite and entangle the passer-by and local community with the commercial entity.
The great 'fabric' covering the facade is created from the multiplication of modules which are built quick and easily, thus appealing to the collective involvement on the intervention construction in a big event taking place at the site. This event involved more than 2400 people that were invited to participate in its construction.
This fabric is built from modules that are manufactured by simply intertwining expanded polyethylene tubes to a welded steel mesh, functioning as a loom-like element inviting public participation. When finished, the modular pieces were immediately placed on the facade thus creating a proper sense of authorship and belonging. Due to its participatory schema, this piece does not cease itself as a contemplative element, but instead emerges as a by-product of that event, as a result of the individual creation that lastly makes up the whole. In addition to the chromatic impact and the constructive simplicity – analogous to weaving – which allows for an easy and ludic participation, the malleability of the material and its lightness instigates an immediate reaction to the wind creating the desired dynamic effect.
As the building is considered protected heritage, in order to be the less intrusive and not to damage in any way the facade’s stonework, a structural grid which sustains the modules is fixed specifically in the facade’s plaster area. For further improvement on stability, the grid also rests upon the facade’s preexisting lamps.
The solid building, once the headquarters of the Primeiro de Janeiro newspaper, is then dissolved into an organic and reactive object – an organism reflecting the constant movement and involvement of those who daily pass-by Santa Catarina Street.
Steel structure, steel mesh, expanded polyethylene tubes, LED floodlights. 20x5x 1m
Author: Nuno Pimenta Frederico Martins
Location: Via Catarina Shopping, Rua Santa Catarina, Porto - Portugal
Photography: Miguel C. Tavares & Rui M. Vieira
