“É o chão que continua”: a arquitetura em taipa de mão do sertão de Quixadá - Ceará

Abstract

The present research has as its theme popular architecture, understood as that produced by the people themselves, within different scales and socio-spatial contexts. Even though being a topic that has been researched and debated for a long time the attempts to document, systematize and disseminate it are still incipient. Considered as an architecture of lesser value and often labeled as “non-architecture” it is relegated not being part of the education of architects and urban planners, being generally associated with poverty contributing to the marginalization of these architectural manifestations. The houses made of mud by hand built in the context of the countryside of the state of Ceará have been going through a process of devaluation, prejudice, marginalization and consequently the disappearance, both of their material aspects through the gradual technical replacement of mud by other techniques and building materials; as immaterial, due to the loss of knowledge and actions linked to them. Thus, this qualitative research has as its theme popular architecture, with the objective of elaborating an inventory that locates, presents and documents the situation of mud houses in rural areas of the municipality of Quixadá in the countryside of the state of Ceará. For this, it was necessary to identify and map the mud houses in rural areas of the municipality, describe their morphological characteristics and record and analyze the know-how of this architecture through the narratives of the master builders and residents. The methodological approach was based on bibliographic and documental research on the popular architecture and other themes that are transversal to it such as the history of the formation of Quixadá and its spatial division, in addition to the appropriation of already established inventory instruments produced by the Instituto Nacional do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) but adapted to the local needs and context. To document the material, typological and conservation aspects of the mud houses the Sistema Integrado de Conhecimento e Gestão (SICG) was used as a reference and for the documentation of constructive knowledge and practices passed on between generations by the master builders it was used the methodology of the Inventário Nacional de Referências Culturais (INRC). After carrying out the field research and application of the inventory instruments it was possible to draw a current overview of the mud houses of four locations in the municipality of Quixadá/CE which are Pote Seco, Vila Nova, Poço Verde and Engano by identifying, mapping and cataloging architectural aspects such as implantation, typology, conservation and the knowledge and practices related to the construction of mud houses, through semistructured interviews with local master builders. It is possible to perceive that the stereotype of poverty and insalubrity is still strongly linked to the constructions made of mud although we cannot deny that people in vulnerable positions resort to these constructive methods. However, it is possible to find in the speeches of residents and master builders a relationship with the rammed earth and its construction process which even with all the effort of replacement and even eradication projects, still carries the knowledge and practices passed on from generation to generation.