oliva foundry

Oliva Factory – Ghost Room

The Oliva Factory (S.João da Madeira) was funded in July 31, 1925, by António José Pinto de Oliveira, as “Oliveira, Filhos e Cia. Lda” with It’s core business as a steel foundry.

Soon, the company expanded it’s know-how to other areas, one of them made OLIVA particulary famous: sewing machines.

With a tremendous importance in the industrial sector of those days, it declined in early 2000 despite the many efforts made. It’s extinction came in 2010. The main office building (ARS Arquitectos, ca. 1950), similar with buildings with the same function, and recalling resemblances with Frank Loyd Wright’s S. C. JOHNSON & SON COMPANY (1936-1939) corporate building and offices.

The main office building is of superb architecture with glamorous interiors with vast amplitude and It’s an astonishing celebration of industrial patrimony recovery, of our days, with future projects to be held at the former installations most of them aiming museological exhibits and activities.

oliva factory
Torre da OLIVA, S.João da Madeira. Old office building, interior.

The photo is my view of a detail angle on one of the rooms, intentionally ghostly, minimalist, calling and inviting us all to visit it and appreciate it’s timeless beauty. A must see..

To know more about OLIVA today go ahead and visit it online.

Col. Estúdio Horácio Novais I FCG- Biblioteca de Arte e Arquivos, reproduced here under written authorization agreement.