Towards a new model of school design in Portugal (1964-1974): Rationalisation, standardisation, economic constraints and control devices

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the design of school buildings in the last decade of the Portuguese dictatorship (1964-1974) and its relationship with the country’s educational policies, geared towards the objectives of industrialisation and economic growth. It also considers the economic constraints placed on the building of schools, the technical and constructive innovations that were to be noted, and the more human-centred approach that was adopted by architecture. The links established with international non-governmental organisations are examined. The paper’s central argument is that, during the 1960s, Portugal enjoyed favourable conditions for the planning and design of schools, based on the pursuit of educational and social objectives through the implementation of a pragmatic, rational and meaningful architecture. Nevertheless, political, economic and demographic constraints, and in particular the large number of schools that needed to be built, jeopardised the architectural research that was initiated at this time, preventing it from going any further by subverting the original educational models and turning them into strictly economic models over the following decades (1970s–1990s). The result was the design of school buildings that were misunderstood by teachers and society at large and which proved to be unsuitable for the Portuguese reality of the 1960s.