WORK STRUCTURE

Institutional Framework

Conservation and restoration in Portugal is currently governed by the DGPC, Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, whose mission is “to ensure the management, safeguarding, enhancement, conservation and restoration of assets that integrate the country’s immovable, mobile and intangible cultural heritage, as well as to develop and implement the national museum policy. ”

This management is coordinated by the Northern, Central, Alentejo and Algarve Regional Directorates of Culture and is carried out by the Town Halls, Parishes and Mercies, depending on the classification of the property. According to Decree-Law 107/2001, the classification of movable and immovable property is divided into three classes: national interest, public interest or municipal interest.

The participation of the conservator restorer is addressed in the following schemes.

Conservator Restorer participation

While this structure is good for any other project, when dealing with cultural assets, the role of conservative restorers – along with other specialists – is critical in participating in all project decision-making stages from project appraisal, with risk assessments, technical advice and definition of methodologies; budgeting and planning of the intervention until the intervention itself.

Project Structure

We consider important, from a global resource management perspective, to apply the logic action described above. Particularly, in a conservation and restoration action, which aims to convey an immaterial value (here associated with its materiality), it is essential that any intervention is based on the definition of the “Why”, namely the purpose; context and principles, which determine “What”, encompassing here the objectives, levels and processes of action and which in turn determine “How” namely the techniques and tools to be used.

Parameters that influence the goal

Regardless of the project structure, simpler or more complex as needed, and the typical constraints encountered in these situations, the fulfillment of the proposed objectives is, as a rule, dependent on the relationship between the cost, time and quality of the intervention variables. There is always a non-pejorative compromise between these that being re-adjustable should be defined at the project planning stage.