Avaliação de pós-ocupação de edifício histórico institucional em Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais: Edifício Casarão Rocha Lagoa

Abstract

The Architectural and Urban ensemble found in Ouro Preto, a little city located in the central area of Minas Gerais,was listed in 1938 by the National Historical and Artistic Heritage Service, today the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional IPHAN) and declared Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in 1980, hosts an extensive and preserved set of buildings and monuments erected during the 18th and 19th centuries over an urban layout little changed in relation to its colonial characteristics. Preserving all this urban acquis of invaluable importance to the maintenance of history represents a big challenge to be overcome daily by the local population along with the public power and other preservation entities. In this context, it is essential to know the techniques and the building systems traditionally used in the historical buildings, just as the environmental characteristics inside the buildings. This knowledge supplies grants to the intervention and qualification projects constitution that promote the right inclusion among the existent structures and the new possibilities of use, valuing the creation of healthy environments that benefit its users comfort in many aspects and regarding the buildings integrity and historicity. This paper shows the constructional characteristics of the building Casarão Rocha Lagoa, and analyses the postoccupation of the work environments inside it, focusing on understand how the building performs environmentally concerning the thermal, luminal and acoustic comfort of its users. This qualitative analysis takes place by the users comprehension and perception and from the environments observation in loco. The results achieved by the post-occupation evaluation indicate that the floors from that specific building perform in a different way thermally during the summer and the winter, which can be related to the different constructive systems identified. Furthermore, other problems were mentioned by the users in their work environments, and these problems are related to the lightening and noise that can be minimized with the use of intervention of architectural strategies, layouts modification and maintenance works of some structures that constitute the building, regarding its ambiance and originality.