Arquinho Factory
Fábrica do Arquinho
The factory’s logo
The Arquinho Factory and its arch, August 2023
Former namesFábrica de Fiação e Tecidos do Arquinho
General information
StatusAbandoned
LocationUrgezes
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
RenovatedTo be determined
ClosedApril 1991
LandlordCity Council of Guimarães

The Fábrica do Arquinho (English: Arquinho Factory) was a textile factory located in the freguesia of Urgezes in Guimarães, Portugal.[1] It used to be one of the most important factories in the city and it gave jobs to hundreds of people until its closure in the end of the 20th century.[2]

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.[2] 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.[2]

It went through many expansions throughout its 70+ years of active existence, compassing many types of architecture and building methods.[2]

Closure and abandonment

The Arquinho Factory entered in bankruptcy and was closed and abandoned in April 1991.[3][2]

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.[4] In October of that same year, the PSP arrested some trespassers in the factory due to the aforementioned problems.[5]

In June 2011 the abandoned complex suffered a massive fire, destroying the roof of 3 different buildings and increase the level of degradation of the historic landmark.[6][2]

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.[7]

The industrial historical patrimony of Guimarães has severely decreased over the last decades.[8] The Castanheiro Factory is being torn down to build a apartment complex,[9] the Companhia de Fiação e Tecidos de Guimarães was mostly torn down and substituted by a big residential building, the Moinho do Buraco Factory also no longer exists, the Minhoto Factory (Herculano & Pimenta) and the Cavalinho Factory were completely demolished to build a Mercadona shop[10] and some access roads.[11] The untouched status of the Arquinho Factory amongst these wouldn’t last long.

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

The Guimarães City Council launched an architectural competition to rehabilitate the Arquinho Factory, which was acquired by the municipality in 2020.[12] The contract signed between the municipality and a property developer stipulates that the old factory building, valued at 1.5 million euros, will remain with the municipality, "paid for by urbanisation fees".[13]

Planning and near future

The first call for tenders for the architectural project was launched in 2022,[14] 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.[15]

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.[15] "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.[16]

The renovation, reconstruction and rehabilitation works are expected to be finished by 2025.[17]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arquinho Factory.

References

  1. ↑ "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.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 https://repositorium.sdum.uminho.pt/bitstream/1822/34519/1/Disserta%c3%a7%c3%a3o_Maria%20Jo%c3%a3o%20Lima%20da%20Silva_2014.pdf
  3. ↑ "Trabalhadores do Arquinho recebem créditos". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  4. ↑ "Toxicodependentes ocuparam antiga fábrica do Arquinho". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  5. ↑ "PSP fez detenções na antiga fábrica do Arquinho (COM VÍDEO)". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  6. ↑ https://repositorio.ul.pt/bitstream/10451/43153/1/Brito-Henriques_Oliveira_Labastida_Costa_Pereira_2019.pdf
  7. ↑ (PDF) https://www.muralha.org/uploads/6/2/8/5/6285999/posi%C3%87%C3%83o_muralha.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ↑ https://www.passeio.pt/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/NoVOID-Livro-Catalogo-Versao-Digital-A.pdf
  9. ↑ Geral. "Antiga fábrica do Castanheiro dá lugar a projecto residencial em Urgezes de 18M€". GUIMARAESDIGITAL.COM (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  10. ↑ Farias, Bruno (5 April 2022). "Mercadona abre segunda loja em Guimarães". Grande Consumo (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Ruas da urbanização Cães de Pedra já têm nome. São inauguradas no sábado". jornaldeguimaraes.pt. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  12. ↑ "9M€ e um concurso de arquitectura para reabilitar Fábrica do Arquinho". Jornal CONSTRUIR (in Portuguese). 10 August 2022. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  13. ↑ 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)
  14. ↑ diariodarepublica.pt https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/doc/11391-2022-200837607. Retrieved 22 November 2023. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. 1 2 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.
  16. ↑ 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.
  17. ↑ Studio, Gen Design. "RUM". RUM. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
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