Maria Pace Chiavari
The invisible world
According to architectural historian Franco Borsi, urban planning, architectural forms and the behavior of each industrial heritage assets are shaped by the environment, culture and political maturity of the country where the industrialization process is under way.87 The resistance that is still apparent today in the Moinho Fluminense complex is prompted by its own history and the Docklands culture, as well as the city of Rio de Janeiro, which was wise enough to acknowledge its value and ensure its preservation. A landmark in the history of industrialization in Brazil, this Mill has the status of a document-monument in the city’s culture, perhaps bonded to the Praça da Harmonia plaza.
Today, the definition of industrial archaeology is being questioned. This is prompted, among other reasons, by difficulties in reconciling the immobility suggested by traditional approaches to heritage conservation, and the dynamic nature of production processes, whose survival depends on continuous change and replacement. Furthermore, the social and cultural parameters of industrial heritage sites have been largely ignored.88
The industrial archaeology concept suggests an exercise in retrieving heritage assets related to work and workers, as well as life and social organization inside and outside the workplace, reflected in architectural shapes.89 The heterogeneous blend of these important factors constitutes the invisible world, whose role is just a significant as that of the visible world, as it links industrial structures to the history of companies, the environment, the territory and the city.90
II and III. Views of the Moinho Fluminense mill taken with a drone between 2019 and 2021. Photo by Mauricio Hora.