The contract work for the adaptation of the former Marie d'Anjou cannery into the new facilities of Francisco Lacerda Museum in Calheta, São Jorge Island, begins Friday, January 5.
 
The work was awarded to the consortium AFAVIAS Açores and AFAVIAS Construções. With a budget of three million Euros and seventy thousand Euros, plus VAT at the legal rate in force, it is expected to be completed by the end of March 2019, provided that there are no deadline extension requests.
 
This investment aims to create a modern cultural infrastructure that will be installed in a place of memories linked to fish canning industry.
 
In order to achieve this purpose, the formal image of the factory will be maintained, as far as possible, using the volumetric reinterpretation of the building. The intervention will select the most significant structures, such as terraces, the main gable, the adjoining chimney and the existing house. They will be maintained and reintegrated with new additions of modern architecture in a regenerative and proportionate perspective.
 
The former Marie D'Anjou factory began its activity at sea with the catch of tuna, which was later unloaded, bled and processed in a factory line that included several steps.
 
This production line was developed in several building spread along terraces that led an isolated house located in the highest point, where the factory's manager used to live.
 
Even in ruins, the Marie D'Anjou factory reveals itself in a complex and fractured functional architecture. This heterogeneity is quite visible in the architecture of the new Francisco Lacerda Museum that, despite reflecting this complexity, will be an integrating centre. In fact, it will become a cultural centre that gives and retains memories as well as a place that celebrates life on São Jorge Island.
 
The issue of sustainability was also fundamental in the design and future use of the building.
 
In this regard, all matters related to energy and comfort gains were taken into account in the design and orientation of the buildings and, therefore, technical and constructive solutions were adopted to facilitate ventilation by natural means.
 
Basalt stone and cryptomeria wood were the materials chosen with the obvious economic advantages, both in terms of manufacture and easy maintenance.
 
The signing ceremony of the contract will take place Friday, January 5, at the current premises of Francisco Lacerda Museum at 4:30 PM. It will be attended by the Regional Director for Culture, Nuno Ribeiro Lopes.