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International working party for ISC/R members update 2003 documentation and conservation
of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the
for office use only modern movement
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International working party fordocumentation and conservation
Minimum Documentation Fiche 2003
of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of themodern movement
composed by national/regional working party of: DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO
0.1 Picture of building/site
depicted item: UEP Coina, Substation of União Eléctrica Portuguesa
source: Subestação de Coina – Vista Geral, Keil do Amaral, 1954, Arquivo do Gabinete de Comunicação da EDP Distribuição
date: 1954
db code
1. Identity of building/group of buildings/urban scheme/landscape/garden
1.1 current name of building: UEP – Subestações da União Eléctrica Portuguesa (Substations of the Portuguese Electrical Union Company)
3 1.2 variant or former name: UEP – Subestações da União Eléctrica Portuguesa 4 1.3 number & name of street: several locations, Coina, Almada, Sobreda, Cachofarra, Palmela. 5 1.4 Town: several locations, Coina, Almada, Sobreda, Cachofarra, Palmela. 6
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International working party for ISC/R members update 2003 documentation and conservation
of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the
for office use only modern movement
1.5 Province/state: various 7
1.6 zip code: 8
1.7 Country: Portugal 9
1.8 national grid reference: 10
1.9 classification/typology: Industry - Electrical substations 11
1.10 protection status & date: none 12
2 History of building
2.1 original brief/purpose: electrical substations, office building, and children summer camp 13 2.2 dates: commission/completion: 1948/1965
Substations 1954 Coina
1958 Barreiro
1959-60 Sobreda
1965 S. Francisco
Services 1948 - 50 Ed. Baixa Tensão e Administrativo de Almada 1954 Colónia de Férias de Palmela
Anos 50 Ed. Administrativo da Cachofarra
14
2.3 Architectural and other designers:
Francisco Keil do Amaral - Coina; Barreiro; Sobreda; S. Francisco; office buildings in de Almada e Cachofarra; summer camp in Palmela
15
2.4 others associated with building Álvaro Freitas (Engineer, Subestação de Coina)/ René Touzet (Subestação de Coina)
16 2.5 significant alterations with dates : no alterations 17
2.6 current use:.same as original 18
2.7 current condition: good 19
3 Description
3.1 general description
The objective of the UEP (União Eléctrica Portuguesa) was to establish and exploit electric power supply lines and substations. The brief required the architect to respond to these programmes within the framework of what we might describe as industrial design: the aim was to plan the form of the product. Keil do Amaral’s intervention covered the peninsula of Setúbal, his complex integrating the substation into an essentially industrial programme of energy production, transformation and transport. However, it also included all the auxiliary utilities, ranging from administrative and low-tension buildings to facilities of a social nature, notably the Palmela holiday resort. The substations were designed as reproducible models that could adapt to the
geographical characteristics of each specific site.
The Coina substation constituted the blueprint. It combines the three main elements: the mono-block nave, the control room and the transformer disassembly tower, whose equipment, given its dimensions, constitutes both form and function. The long main body, with a ground floor only, accommodates the control room and the great nave that accommodates the mono-blocks, which determine the space between composed pillars and the ventilation and illumination system. The porticoes provide the base for the structural system, spanning a space of 10 metres and featuring double uprights 7.5 metres high. Its wing profile at the arrow point made a lighting
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International working party for ISC/R members update 2003 documentation and conservation
of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the
for office use only modern movement
solution possible through a split-level flat roof rising above the central part, allowing light to enter from the sides or above through skylights cut out from the concrete. Similarly, the control room, looking south, receives gentle light through three sheet-aluminium filters.
Linked to the rest by a covered passageway, the transformer disassembly tower
constitutes a representative element of the entire complex. The planimetric treatment recalls neo-plasticist principles and the flat roof seems to be separated from the vertical planes, thereby creating an expressive fluctuation. The tower is monumental in volume and features the UEP publicity sign, metaphorically signalling the presence in Portugal of this innovative facility from the early fifties.
The Barreiro substation, built in 1958, was followed the next year by the one in Sobreda and by the S. Francisco substation in 1965, an evolutionary process in which we clearly perceive how the approach to the programme and handling of materials progressively matured. The architect used mostly bare concrete as a graphic element or brick, revealing the potential of its texture.
Similarly, the low-tension utilities and administrative buildings in Almada, Setúbal and Cachofarra are an example of the growing dignification of industrial facilities, making reference to the electrical purpose they serve. The ‘integration of the three arts’, including tiled panels by the painter Maria Keil, is a logical consequence of the principles that lie at the basis of this conceptual process, which in this case also employs a system of patterns.
3.2 Construction 21 3.3 Context 22 4 Evaluation 4.1 Technical 23 4.2 Social 24
4.3 Cultural & Aesthetic 25
4.4 Historical 26
4.5 general assessment : 27
5 Documentation
5.1 principal references
- LANDROVE, Susana, GARCÍA BRAÑA, Celestino, TOSTÕES, Ana, (eds.), La arquitectura de la industria, 1925-1965. Registro DOCOMOMO Ibérico, Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico,
Barcelona, 2005.
- 50 Anos – União Eléctrica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Empresa Editorial Electrotécnica EDEL, LDA “Edifício da UEP”, in Arquitectura, nº61, Dez. 1957
- TOSTÕES, Ana, Os Verdes Anos na Arquitectura Portuguesa dos anos 50, Porto, FAUP, 1997 - TOSTÕES, Ana, Keil do Amaral, o arquitecto e o humanista, Lisboa, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa – Palácio Galveias, 1999
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5.2 visual material attached - UEP Coina, picture - UEP Coina, plan - UEP Almada, picture - UEP Sobreda, picture - UEP S. Francisco, picture
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International working party for ISC/R members update 2003 documentation and conservation
of buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the
for office use only modern movement
- UEP Barreiro
- UEP Office building Cachofarra, picture - UEP Summer Camp Palmela, picture
5.3 rapporteur/date: Fundación DOCOMOMO Ibérico / Ana Tostões / Susana Landrove, 2002 30 6. Fiche report examination by ISC/R
name of examining ISC member: date of examination:
approval:
Wp/ref. no: NAI ref. no: comments:
DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO - UEP, ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS OFUNIÃO ELÉCTRICA PORTUGUESA
PICTURES
DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO - UEP, ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS OFUNIÃO ELÉCTRICA PORTUGUESA
DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO - UEP, ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS OFUNIÃO ELÉCTRICA PORTUGUESA
UEP Almada
DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO - UEP, ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS OFUNIÃO ELÉCTRICA PORTUGUESA
UEP S. Francisco
DOCOMOMO IBÉRICO - UEP, ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONS OFUNIÃO ELÉCTRICA PORTUGUESA
UEP Office building Cachofarra
