Fábrica do Arquinho

Arquinho Factory
Fábrica do Arquinho
The factory's logo
The Arquinho Factory and its arch, August 2023
Map
Former namesFábrica de Fiação e Tecidos do Arquinho
General information
StatusAbandoned
LocationCaldeiroa Street, Urgezes
Town or cityGuimarães
CountryPortugal
Coordinates41°26′18.866″N 8°17′50.725″W / 41.43857389°N 8.29742361°W / 41.43857389; -8.29742361
Elevation171m
Opened1913
RenovatedSet to be completed by 2026/2027[1]
ClosedApril 1991
LandlordCâmara Municipal of Guimarães

The Fábrica do Arquinho (English: Arquinho Factory) was a textile factory located in the Caldeiroa Street, in the freguesia of Urgezes.[2] It used to be one of the most important factories of Guimarães since it gave jobs to hundreds of people for many years until its closure in the last decade of the 20th century.[3]

History

Foundation

The Arquinho Factory in its early years, 1920s

The Arquinho Factory was founded in 1913 by António José Pereira de Lima and his brother Manuel José Pereira de Lima, two very important capitalists of Guimarães at the time, under the name Fábrica de Fiação e Tecidos do Arquinho, in the Caldeiroa Street, a heavily industrialized part of the city.[3] This was an industrialization era for Guimarães, with many factories opening around the city, from the end of the 19th century all the way to the 1920s.


Development and expansion

The factory survived Portugal's involvement in World War I and around the time of the Second World War, the Arquinho Factory had around 160 workers.[3]

It went through many expansions throughout its 70+ years of active existence, compassing many types of architecture and building methods.[3]

Closure and abandonment

The Arquinho Factory entered in bankruptcy and was closed and abandoned in April 1991.[4][3]

In 2010 the factory was marked by the PSP as a "drug market", where addicts occupied the complex to deal and consume all types of drugs.[5] In October of that same year, the PSP arrested some trespassers in the factory due to the aforementioned problems.[6]

In June 2011, a substantial fire engulfed the abandoned complex, resulting in the destruction of the roofs of three distinct buildings and worsening the overall deterioration of this historic landmark.[7][3]

Rehabilitation and renovation

Background

The factory is considered a historical landmark by the people of Guimarães, and they fear the loss of the industrial patrimony of the city.[8]

The industrial historical patrimony of Guimarães has severely decreased over the last decades.[9] The Castanheiro Factory is being torn down to build a apartment complex,[10] the Avenida Factory was mostly torn down and substituted by a big residential building, the preservation status of the Moinho do Buraco Factory was removed,[11] the Cavalinho Factory was majorly torn down and the Minhoto Factory was completely demolished to build a Mercadona shop[12] and some access roads.[13] The untouched status of the Arquinho Factory amongst these wouldn't last long, as it stayed just a couple hundred meters from the previous.

The entrance arch, the one that gave the factory its name (Arquinho=Little arch)

The Câmara Municipal of Guimarães launched an architectural competition to rehabilitate the Arquinho Factory, which was acquired by the municipality in 2020.[14] The agreement established between the city council and the property developer specifies that the old factory complex will now be owned by the câmara municipal, costing a total of 1.5 million euros.[15] The ownership fee was settled through the use of "urbanization fees".[16]

Planning and near future

The first call for tenders for the architectural project was launched in 2022,[17] but was abandoned, and was repeated at the beginning of 2023 with a base bid of 280,000 euros. The winning proposal was from the Porto studio AND-RÉ Architecture.[18]

The new teaching and research complex in Guimarães will be called Tech-G and is intended to house the Aerospace Research Centre, the University of Minho's new curricular commitment, as well as the Fibrenamics spin-off, dedicated to fibers and their derivatives, which is currently based at the Azurém Campus.[18] "It's a promising area and the Arquinho Factory could be the location for this future school," Domingos Bragança told Guimarães Digital, adding that the Fibrenamics Platform could also extend its research activity in the "field of new materials" to that property.[19]

The renovation, reconstruction and rehabilitation works were expected to be finished by 2025,[20] but are now expected to be finished in 2026/2027.[1]

See also

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arquinho Factory.
  • 2014 essay about the factory

References

  1. ^ a b "Novas instalações da Fibrenamics na Fábrica do Arquinho". www.fibrenamics.com (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  2. ^ "António José Pereira Lima (Industrial e proprietário da Fábrica de Fiação e Tecidos do Arquinho, Guimarães)". www.arquivo.presidencia.pt (in Portuguese). Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f João Lima da Silva, Maria (October 2014). "Fábrica como Residência ERASMUS:Reabilitação na Fábrica do Arquinho" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Trabalhadores do Arquinho recebem créditos". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Toxicodependentes ocuparam antiga fábrica do Arquinho". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  6. ^ "PSP fez detenções na antiga fábrica do Arquinho (COM VÍDEO)". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  7. ^ https://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/43153/1/Brito-Henriques_Oliveira_Labastida_Costa_Pereira_2019.pdf
  8. ^ https://www.muralha.org/uploads/6/2/8/5/6285999/posi%C3%87%C3%83o_muralha.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ^ https://www.passeio.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/NoVOID-Livro-Catalogo-Versao-Digital-A.pdf
  10. ^ Geral. "Antiga fábrica do Castanheiro dá lugar a projecto residencial em Urgezes de 18M€". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  11. ^ "PESQUISA GERAL | FÁBRICA DO MOINHO DO BURACO". servicos.dgpc.gov.pt. Archived from the original on 7 March 2024. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  12. ^ Farias, Bruno (5 April 2022). "Mercadona abre segunda loja em Guimarães". Grande Consumo (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  13. ^ "Ruas da urbanização Cães de Pedra já têm nome. São inauguradas no sábado". jornaldeguimaraes.pt. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  14. ^ "9M€ e um concurso de arquitectura para reabilitar Fábrica do Arquinho". Jornal CONSTRUIR (in Portuguese). 10 August 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  15. ^ FPGuimarães (10 December 2019). "Guimarães com nova zona urbana e um Mercadona incluído - FreePass Guimarães" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 27 December 2023.
  16. ^ https://www.comumonline.com/2020/09/fabrica-do-arquinho-pode-vir-a-acolher-curso-de-engenharia-aeroespacial-da-uminho/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ^ diariodarepublica.pt https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/doc/11391-2022-200837607. Retrieved 22 November 2023. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ^ a b FPGuimarães (25 May 2023). "Rua da Caldeiroa espreita o futuro com remodelação da antiga Fábrica do Arquinho - FreePass Guimarães" (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  19. ^ Gualtieri, Autor: Fernando (10 December 2019). "Fábrica do Arquinho, em Guimarães, pode ser 'base' da Engenharia Aeroespacial da UMinho". Press Minho (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  20. ^ Studio, Gen Design. "RUM". RUM. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
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