Cardadores

Feitoria do Vale de Ílhavo

Three concrete totems for the entrance to the Feitoria. A proposal that was never built, and one of my favourite things to have drawn.

Role: Design and development
Status: Proposal, unbuilt
Year: 2025
Disciplines: Spatial design, Sculpture, 3D modelling, CAD

A render of the three concrete totems standing against the sky at the entrance to the Feitoria

A proposal for the cardadores, the wool carders, at the Feitoria do Vale de Ílhavo. A small family of three sculptural totems, meant to hold the entrance with real presence while staying close to the material and character of the place.

A simple structural gesture

Each totem is three concrete blocks threaded onto a single steel spine, with each block turned slightly off the one below it. That small deliberate misalignment is the whole idea: rather than stacking into a rigid column, the shifts between the volumes give the thing movement.

The contrast is what carries it. The weight and permanence of the concrete, against blocks that look as though they have been nudged out of line.

Section through one totem: a single steel tube running the full height through all three concrete blocks, down to a base prepared in the ground

Fig. 01Section, one totem

One steel tube runs the full height through all three blocks, down to a base prepared in the ground. Nothing else holds it up. They stand a little over three and a half metres.

The blocks are not identical in what they carry. One takes text engraved into the surface; the one above it takes a bas-relief of the carders themselves.

Elevation of all three totems side by side, with a figure and a child for scale — The three totems in elevation, with a figure for scale

Close render of the totems showing the relief and engraved text on the concrete — The engraved text and the bas-relief, and the totems against the building

The totems seen against the white building with its tiled roof — The engraved text and the bas-relief, and the totems against the building

From structure to presence

The project was developed through 3D modelling and spatial studies: the relationship between the three volumes, their proportions, and where they sit on the site. The construction logic was kept deliberately simple so the composition could carry the work.

Testing it meant putting it back on the site: montages over photographs, in the real light and at the real corner.

A second photomontage of the totems on the site, seen from the road — On the site, from the road

It was never built, which has not stopped me being fond of it.

Credits

Proposal developed at United By for the Feitoria do Vale de Ílhavo. Unbuilt.