Between Memory and Fetish: the Preservation of the Hat Factory “Chapéus Cury,” in Campinas

Driven by the coffee economy, Campinas has sustained a huge growth in the final decades of the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th century, with some industrial initiatives that were consolidated only after the 1930s. The neighbourhood of Vila Itapura, next to the Campinas’s historic centre, was one of the places where factories were installed, and in the first decades of the 20^th century, the Cury hat factory, also known as the “Fábrica de Chapéus Cury,” was opened. The building is still an important feature in the surrounding landscape. It was chosen as the focus of our study because of its importance in the cityscape. Located in an urban context that has been dedicated as residential, the area is currently going through a transformation process, being gradually valued and “verticalized.” Part of the edification project was protected by municipal heritage conservation laws. The preservation proposal included the maintenance of a fraction of the façade and its chimney. Following modifications in the production and new market requirements in this industry, the hat fabrication declined significantly in 2000, and it migrated part of its production to other locations. It was forced to close completely in 2002, incurring the loss of important material (such as machinery and documentation) and immaterial testimonies (as the workers’ know-how and oral memories). This kind of preservation that seeks to reduce the industrial heritage to the building, and in this specific case only some parts of it, is in line with the interests of the real-estate market. It results in removing documentation and immaterial heritage from these places, and the remaining building being used to add value to the new projects. The maintenance of these building fragments, treated as a scenario and disconnected from the factory’s memory, tends to become an obsession.