In line with Covilhã’s Application to UNESCO Creative City in Design for 2022-2025, REVIVE will focus on promoting textile design which is inspired by the city’s history.

The history of the Portuguese woolen industry lacks a thoroughly documented study of the dyeing and production processes used from the 18th c. onwards, when the manufacture of military uniforms implied a clear specialization in the various operations of transforming the wool, from raw material into fabric. REVIVE will focus on the activity carried out at this level by the Royal Textile Factory from Covilhã, between 1764-1850, which was established by the Marquis of Pombal within his policy of promoting the modernization of national wool production.

For this purpose, there is a profusion of documentary sources dispersed in various archives and public libraries. While important references have been published, they lack the necessary analysis of historical contextualization and technological characterization. A collection of more than a hundred textile samples stands out, which will be the object of laboratory analysis through a multi-analytical approach, developed in the past decade by the Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (LAQV).

Through a systematic analysis of the available sources, we will seek to clarify the production and dyeing processes used in the Royal Textile Factory from Covilhã, in a historical period that allows us to follow the evolution from the manufacturing to the industrial phase. REVIVE aims at identifying the technological innovations with the aim of optimize and insert them in a contemporary context.

This will be accomplished by the following plan:

• An in-depth study of the archives and documentary sources
• Mapping of external influences and resources
• Interpretation and historical reconstruction of textile and dyeing formulations
• Application of the historical formulations in design & architecture

Project Website: HERE

Project closing activities: HERE