INTERVENTION IN THE BUILT BRUTALIST HERITAGE.

SOUTH FAÇADE OF THE AGOSTINHO VELOSO DA SILVEIRA BUILDING - FIEPB (1983).

Abstract

This paper presents a proposal for a design intervention on the South façade of the Agostinho Veloso da Silveira Building, headquarters of the Federation of Industries of the State of Paraíba (FIEPB), a landmark of brutalist architecture in Campina Grande, inaugurated in 1983. The development of this project is part of the academic context of the Architecture Project V discipline, taught by Professor Alcilia Afonso, and which is part of the pedagogical project of the Architecture and Urbanism course at the Federal University of Campina Grande/UFCG. It is fundamentally based on an extensive process of documentation and analysis of the built object. It should be noted that the initial stages of anamnesis, cadastral survey, and diagnosis of the state of conservation were carried out collaboratively by several groups in the class, covering the historical, normative, formal, and tectonic dimensions of the building. However, the specific scope of this article focuses exclusively on proposing the intervention for the posterior (South) façade, identified as the most critical area in terms of visual discharacterization and physical integrity.

The diagnosis revealed that the building's façade skin suffered significant degradation due to the disordered installation of air conditioning equipment over forty years. The presence of exposed piping and condensing units, treated here as "parasitic elements," disrupted the rhythmic reading of the perforated elements (cobogós) and the building's exposed concrete, generating visual pollution and risks of constructive pathologies. The central objective of the intervention was to restore the formal integrity of the work without denying the functional necessity of contemporary infrastructure systems.

The adopted design methodology prioritized reversibility and a clear distinction between the new and the old. The technical proposal consists of ordering the building infrastructure through the insertion of stainless steel metallic elements. Vertical cable trays with oblong holes were detailed to conceal and conduct the piping, creating a vertical rhythm that dialogues with the existing structure. For the condensers, standardized metallic supports and frames were designed, which organize the volumes of the machines and protect the system, integrating them harmoniously into the façade's composition. The project also includes the restoration and replacement of damaged or missing ceramic cobogós. It is concluded that the intervention restores the integrity and monumentality of the FIEP building to the city, demonstrating that the update of functional and technical demands of heritage buildings can occur through design solutions that organize, rather than hide, the building's layers of time.