ENGRAVING AND GILDING SIGNS

This golden shop window really showcases what they did best, and what can still be seen over many doors in downtown Porto - beautiful gilt lettering over glass, advertising for goods.

FLUORESCENT LIGHT FIXTURE

In a modest café in Porto, the light fixtures are still relics from an Art Deco past. More will come from said café in the future.

BRASS MOLDS

 

Lamp factory, Marinha Grande.

BAHAMAS? NO, MARINHA GRANDE

The British Industrialist William Stephens established himself around Lisbon during the 18th century. He became known for producing glass, and brought to Marinha Grande, near Leiria, foreign skilled labor to work in his factory. He must have also brought an architect or two, as everything built is in the British Palladian style. The architectural compound encompasses his own house, offices and factory. As in the Bahamas across the ocean, the severity of the architecture is made smoother, infused with the local colors and vernacular details. It is sadly semi-abandoned, waiting for funding to turn it into a museum like so many projects in the country today, but the exterior is still charming and surprising.

ABANDONED STEAM TRAINS

Régua, Portugal.

WINDMILL

Windmill in Alqueidão, Portugal. In these years of massive proliferation of wind turbines ravaging the countryside landscape, stands this modest windmill which not too long ago was fully functional grinding wheat to make flour. Clay pots fixed to the spokes create an eerie sound which was useful to track the direction of the wind.

ALFÂNDEGA DO PORTO

Part of the customs house in Porto with its massive cast iron doors and slender temple of the winds columns. The beam is a real I-Beam made of riveted metal plates. This would predate Post-Modernism by more than a century - except here, the scale is right. Tracks on the floor enabled carts to go around with the goods to be inspected or securely stored.