Abstract:

This paper considers the importance of academic research projects regarding the integrated master’s degree in Architecture of the University of Beira Interior (UBI), Covilhã, Portugal. Evolution on architectural programs, due to the Bologna Process, oversaw the link between education and research in the young architect’s formation. At UBI, the future architect’s 10th semester (which is the final semester) comprises a dissertation which can be practical (a full design) or an academic research project (connecting theory and practice) as well as a full semester of Project design. A significative number of these final dissertations tackle academical research projects regarding the built heritage. These are interventions combining education and research, theory and practice, ideas and designs. The Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture of UBI, its staff and students, have developed a concern regarding built heritage. Dissertation themes have focused on traditional aspects of Portuguese architecture and traditional building technologies. This paper brings to discussion a very specific case study. In fact, this reveals a new trend, and a new academic experience, achieved through the connection to the reality. The dissertation research design was being built while the dissertation was being carried out. The traditional Portuguese architecture of the so called "cubist" dwellings of Olhão in Algarve’s region (Portugal), and its traditional building technologies, are the core of the research which conducted to an architectural rehabilitation in Olhão. This kind of research project (linking education and reality) will endow young future architects’ specific skills. These skills are mainly about architectural rehabilitation, through with the history of Portuguese architecture, building engineering physics, traditional construction technologies, and local materials. This paper will tackle this research, focusing on objectives, methodologies, and results, which will be presented, and open to discussion, providing a debate on the results and experiences that outcome from the actual concretization through a real case of rehabilitation design of a “cubist” dwelling in Olhão.

Keywords:

Architectural rehabilitation, History of Architecture, Building Phisics, Traditional construction, Dissertation, Architecture.