O popular em xeque: arquitetura popular e prática de preservação na cidade de Mucugê, Bahia

Abstract

This work consists of a study about the preservation and conservation of vernacular architecture, with a specific focus on the preservation practices undertaken by IPHAN in the city of Mucugê, Bahia, based on technical manifestations, official letters and other documents present in the interventions’ requests. Therefore, one hundred and fifty cases deposited in the Archive of IPHAN’s Superintendence in Bahia and in SEI were analyzed, which comprise almost four decades of the institution's operation in the city; of this total, the research focused on eighty-eight, related to actions/interventions in the historic center. Although it has been present in the cultural heritage field since the creation of IPHAN – through its publications – and makes up most of the built environment, architectural productions originated from popular culture were not widely recognized as heritage until the second half of the 20th century, when the conceptual expansions, verified both at the international and national levels, opened the way for its valorization and patrimonialization. This scenario also gained new contours from the emergence of policies to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage. In this sense, this research aims to understand the effects of institutional practices of preservation on the popular character of the listed city of Mucugê, whose constructive processes started to be mediated by opinions and technical interpositions of the institution after the listing, questioning about possible transformations in the production of this architecture and on the most appropriate ways to preserve it. The analyzed period was cut into three distinct moments (1980-1993; 1994-2009; 2010-2018), realizing that from the beginning the actions were based on the preservation of an idealized configuration, while essential issues for the preservation of a vernacular architecture, which is dynamic by nature, were left aside, showing a certain lack of knowledge about the way the community recognizes and appropriates the cultural good. The research assumes that the preservation of architectures from popular culture must take into account not only their physical aspect, but also their intangible dimension, protecting both the architecture itself and the know-how that gave rise to it.