State-Subsidised Housing and Architecture in 20th-Century Portugal: A Critical Review Outlining Multidisciplinary Implications

Rui Jorge Garcia Ramos,Eliseu Gonçalves,Gisela Lameira,Luciana Rocha

doi:10.3390/challe12010007

Rui Jorge Garcia Ramos, Eliseu Gonçalves + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/challe12010007

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Journal: Challenges	Publication Date: Mar 1, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Porto

Abstract

Stable access to affordable quality housing is a core feature of public health principles and practices. In this report, we provide an update on the research project “Mapping Public Housing: A Critical Review of the State-subsidised Residential Architecture in Portugal (1910–1974)” (MdH), developed between 2016 and 2019 at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in Portugal. This funded research project (PTDC/CPC-HAT/1688/2014) brought together an international and multidisciplinary team composed of architects, sociologists, historians, an economist, an anthropologist, information scientists and archivists, from different academic levels (senior researchers, postdoctoral, PhD and Master’s degree students), adopting a variety of approaches and operating in a range of different contexts. The aim of the research undertaken was to investigate the reality of social and state-subsidised housing in terms of its architecture, while, at the same time, seeking to broaden our understanding of this phenomenon and of the transition to a democratic regime. Furthermore, this research project was designed to contribute towards the development of common ground for supporting decisions in the environmental, social and economic fields relating to housing management, as well as architectural heritage management and protection. This review is based on the submitted application (2015) and final report (2020).

Highlights

In the period between 1910 and 1974, Portugal lived through a variety of political regimes, ranging from the First Republic (1910–1926) and the military dictatorship (1926–1932) to the constitutional dictatorship of the Estado Novo (“New State”) (1933–1974).As in most southern European countries [1], the first steps towards introducing the notion of social assistance policies were taken by a corporatist authoritarian government [2,3], giving rise to a complex web of charitable and pre-welfare agencies and a mode of action that was different from those followed in other countries [4,5].The question of low-income housing involved a series of government measures addressing the basic needs of the poor
“Housing in Portugal: History and Contemporaneity of State-subsidised Neighbourhoods between 1910 and 1974”: an exhibition organised by FAUP/CEAU with the curatorship of Paulino and Rocha (MdH researchers) and launched at the time of the International
Congress, based on the systematised information provided by the MdH Database; Several MdH researchers led some teams and were responsible for critical partial studies on the book “Habitação: Cem anos de políticas públicas em Portugal 1918–2018” [63,64,65,75], a research project developed by the public institute IHRU

Summary

Introduction

In the period between 1910 and 1974, Portugal lived through a variety of political regimes, ranging from the First Republic (1910–1926) and the military dictatorship (1926–1932) to the constitutional dictatorship of the Estado Novo (“New State”) (1933–1974).As in most southern European countries [1], the first steps towards introducing the notion of social assistance policies were taken by a corporatist authoritarian government [2,3], giving rise to a complex web of charitable and pre-welfare agencies and a mode of action that was different from those followed in other countries [4,5].The question of low-income housing involved a series of government measures addressing the basic needs of the poor (education, health and justice). The housing solutions adopted (the construction process, the layout of the internal space, the different dwelling types, their use and their urban integration) express the nature of the State’s commitment and the relationship that existed between ideology, pre-welfare policies and residential architecture. It was not so much a social state implemented within the framework of a democracy, but rather a state whose welfare and charitable activity was practised under the assumption of a strictly political form of social control.

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