Casas sem arquitecto: A cova do vapor, um caso de estudo sobre identidade e gosto popular

Abstract

The present society, its new ways of life and its new problems, require new solutions and a rethinking of the way to concebe architecture nowadays. In this way, there comes the need to reconsider the architect's role in these days, becoming really important to the architect to understand the advantages of working in a more sensitive way, of being more opened to people, to their wishes and to the way their needs change with time. Guided by the wish to understand why architects and popular taste are so distant from each other, and aiming to try to reduce this distance, this piece proposes to analyse the popular taste and its motivations. It is desired to show the value existing in contemporary popular architecture, insisting on how the study about it should be more detailed than it has been until these days, in order to introduce architects to a new sensibility, more inclusive and closer to people and their desires. The Cova do Vapor, a place built by those who live there, will be the chosen exemple to better understand the reasons that motivate the popular taste and the relation between that taste and the identity ostentation which makes contemporary popular architecture so distinctive. Knowing the people behind those houses and the reasons for their choices, is expected to help to understand the achieved architectural shapes and the popular taste they represent.