Introducing Modern Gallery Housing in Maputo: Design Experimentations, 1950-1968

Abstract

Modern architecture has recently been the subject of a more systematic analysis in the formerly Portuguese African territory. These studies aim at understanding the specific circumstances from which Modern Portuguese architecture first arose. Following the international debate on housing during the 20th century, Mozambique has been the arena of a new and experimental approach to collective housing in accordance with the guidelines set out by Le Corbusier. A singular social, economic and cultural territory, it adopted a tropical variant of the gallery typology, briefly introduced in this paper by means of select case studies built in Maputo between 1950 and 1968.