Ruins of Solar de Mello Viana: an architectural project for consolodation and intervention
Historical buildings; colonial period; conservation; contemporary architecture
The Solar de Mello Vianna was an imposing building in the colonial period, located in the surroundings of the historical city of Sabara. The Baroque architecture of the churches highlights the richness of the golden era; the railway bridges and the working villages remind us of the iron era; and the urban expansion which adulterated the city’s landscape in detriment of the proximity of the capital. For these reasons it was named Ruins of Solar Mello Vianna, architectonic fragment marked, in its recent conservation estate, by three economic phases which consolidated and changed the city until these days. The ruins, camouflaged towards the vegetation and the earthy colour of its stone walls, rely on the memory and protection of the residents who, longing, wait for its preservation. The recent work explores the information found related to this monument, analysing, in a critical way, the traced elements of the remaining stones, looking for historical and constructive data, and modifications of the surroundings. Supported by contemporaneous restoration’s theorists, it proposes the intervention for consolidation of the ruin and of the new architectonic volume, with the objective of invigorating the usage of the space, in favour of the current demands of Sabara.