Editors: Ana Tostões, Zara Ferreira
Guest editors: João Belo Rodeia
Keywords: Modern Movement, Modern architecture, Lisbon modern architecture, Estado Novo, Modern urban planning.
In the words of José-Augusto França, Lisbon is the last of the old European cities and the first of the modern cities, as confirmed by the 1758 Baixa Pombalina plan undertaken for the reconstruction of the city destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, as a pioneering example of modern urban planning. Following the avant-garde plan, modern architecture in Portugal may be envisaged through three main moments according to specific policies undertaken during the long Estado Novo dictatorship (1926-1974).
Published:
2016-10-01
Book Reviews
Editorial
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In the words of José-Augusto França, Lisbon is the last of the old European cities and the first of the modern cities, as confirmed by the 1758 Baixa Pombalina plan undertaken for the reconstruction of the city destroyed by the 1755 earthquake, as a pioneering example of modern urban planning. Following the avant-garde plan, modern architecture in Portugal may be envisaged through three main moments according to specific policies undertaken during the long Estado Novo dictatorship (1926-1974).
Essays
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The urban planner João Guilherme Faria da Costa (1906–1971) is a leading figure of the generation of modern Portuguese architects, who distinguished himself by an intense professional activity in the field of urban planning since the 1930s, which is when this discipline was introduced into Portugal. In fact, with the institution of the Estado Novo regime (1933–1974), a completely new era was initiated for Portuguese urban planning, which evolved from being mostly the result of private initiative, to becoming an instrument for the public control of urban transformation. Faria da Costa,...
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The Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO) built in modern Lisbon, between 1927 and 1948, and added to until 1996, is the result of the Francisco Gentil effort to study and treat cancer. It is part of the Portuguese modern healthcare network and a reference concerning social, urban and architecture innovations, where the architects Cristino da Silva (1896–1936), Carlos Ramos (1897–1969), Raul Lino (1879–1974), Ernest Koop (1890–1962), Walter Diestel (1904–) and Raul Rodrigues de Lima (1909–1980) took part. By highlighting its cultural value this essay aims to stress the importance of...
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The search for the concept and the practise of a “total project” or “global project” in architecture, in the sense of the project that integrates various artistic and technical disciplines and which reflects itself as a coherent and constructed whole, are the guiding principles to explore the relationship of architecture with works of art and with other diversified technical fields, in reference to the “total work of art” concept. The architectural concept that Porfírio Pardal Monteiro (1897–1957) will come to defend, revolves around the integration of the various fields of engineering...
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Cassiano Branco (1897-1970) belonged to the pioneer generation of modern Portuguese architects, who worked during the years of the dictatorship. During the 1930s, Cassiano produced an anti-conservative and eloquent architecture, contrasting with the guidelines of the regime. The discomfort about his personality came also from his ideological opposition to the government. Among his peers he has been considered “an exception to the rule”, working, mainly for private investors, on programs for rental housing, movie theaters and tourism facilities, which were built along the boulevards of...
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Infante Santo was idealized as a modern way of living in a modern avenue, within the existing city. This comprehensive project of city architecture, coordinated by the architect Alberto Pessoa (1919–1985) and built during the 1950s, embodies a site-specific attitude of cultural and urban continuity. During its planning and construction, this major urban project was first exhibited in Lisbon, in 1951, and then in Rome, 1955, London, 1956, Washington, 1958, Brussels, 1958, and also published in the French magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, in 1960. Today, the absence of a strategy for...
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In the 1950s, when the social, aesthetic and technological assumptions of the Modern Movement seemed to be consolidated, there was hesitation in Portugal. Two possibilities were open to what could be viewed as post-war understanding of modernity. Some architects focused on the possible confrontation between the heritage of tradition and avant-garde proposals, in tune with the international movement. Others assimilated the universal appeal of the Modern Movement and aimed to operate within those contexts, facing the shortage of technological tools and of scarce theoretical production. Ruy...
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The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation headquarters and museum complex (1959–1969) headed a fundamental role in building science in Portugal, as it contributed to the accomplishment of a Modern Movement design committed with a high level of construction quality, showing that there was more beyond Modern Movement formalism. Inaugurated in 1969, it was designed to create a pleasant environment, providing prospects from inside at various angles to the grove of trees and the surrounding land. As a mega-structure designed under a multi-disciplinary design and construction team it achieved a high...
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Chelas is situated in the east of Lisbon and corresponds to the third and final phase of a large-scale planning operation that began in the late 1950s, covering an area of roughly 737 hectares, equivalent to 1/10 of the city’s total area. The Master Plan for Chelas, approved in 1964, was marked by the revision of the principles of modern planning and represents a landmark in town planning in Portugal. The protracted nature of the plan’s implementation and the failure to complete all of its programs seriously compromised the success of the presented proposal. This article proposes a...
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The Plan of 1758 for the reconstruction of Lisbon's Baixa Pombalina followed principles of unparalleled efficiency and regularity. The grid of rectangular urban blocks with pre-designed street façades had a lasting impact on urban identity. Today, the original features of the blocks of flats allow renovation strategies that address changes in domestic life and present-day comfort demands: making use of alcoves and the enfilade to address intimacy; turning kitchens into social areas; using multiple entrances for flat division; introducing lifts according to staircase design. Recent...
Interviews
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On August 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed the architect Manuel Salgado, councilor of the Municipality of Lisbon since 2007, in order to discuss the main policies undertaken and his ideas on urban planning in its connection to mobility infrastructures, public space and the continuous reconstruction of park and green areas, in Lisbon. Manuel Salgado was born in 1944, Lisbon, and studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1968). From 1971 to 1982, he was the technical responsible for the architectural office CIPRO and in 1984 he became manager of the architectural office Risco....
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On July 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed the architect Gonçalo Byrne who has been deeply reflecting, writing and interviewing in the city through projects of reference, in order to broadly understand the evolution of the city, with an emphasis on the modernity of the 1758 Baixa Pombalina Plan, and its contemporary and future potential, grounded in its roots. Gonçalo Byrne was born in 1941, Alcobaça, studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1968) and is Doctor Honoris Causa (2005) from the Technical University of Lisbon and the University of Alghero. He has been professor in...
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On April 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed Professor José-Augusto França, the Portuguese modern art researcher of reference on the contemporary era, in order to discuss the key modern structure that made the shift towards a Modern Lisbon. José-Augusto França (b. 1922, Tomar) is historian, sociologist and critic of art. He has a graduation in Historical and Philosophical Sciences (1944, Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon), a PhD in History (1962, Paris-Sorbonne University, Une Ville des Lumères: la Lisbonne de Pombal), a diploma on Sociology of the Art (1963, L'Art et la Société...
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On July 2016, Ana Tostões interviewed João Luís Carrilho da Graça, one of the main Portuguese contemporary architects, in order to discuss the riverside projects that he has been developing for the future of Lisbon. João Luís Carrilho da Graça was born in 1952, Portalegre, and studied architecture at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1977). He was assistant lecturer at the Lisbon School of Fine Art (1977-1992), full professor at the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (2001-2010) and the University of Évora (2005-2013). He coordinated the departments of Architecture in both institutions until...
Introduction
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The modern experience in Lisbon (and Portugal) deserves a much wider and better dissemination in international terms, not only because of its own intrinsic value, but also because of its specificity, both of which are much more relevant when one considers the country’s peripheral contingency, the respective absence of any of the main premises that generated modernity in European architecture, the political context from which it resulted and the subsequent socio-cultural conservativeness of the country, the city and many of its elites. Even though there can be no doubt, and particularly...
