Intervenção no Moderno: Reconhecimento, caracterização e salvaguarda de edificios de habitação plurifamiliar

Abstract

This research aims to recognise and characterise modern multifamily housing buildings in order to promote their safeguard. From a number of representative examples of the Modern Movement architecture in Oporto (1948-1961), the analysis focuses on the flats as private domestic spaces particularly subjected to obsolescence and transformation. In this ensemble, we examine the relationship between the changes necessary to fulfil current domestic requirements and the preservation of their authenticity. The research comparatively examines the original projects and the existent, based on primary sources with archival research, secondary sources, visits to case studies and interviews with the owners, residents and architects. Thus, the space-functional transformations are systematized and the tolerance to change tested. Also, the patrimonial valorisation of this architectural legacy is considered through the observation of the main instruments that contribute to their study, dissemination and conservation, as well as the analysis of the legal conditions concerning urban renovation and built heritage protection. In addition, contemporary interventions in Geneva are examined in case studies with different levels of patrimonial protection, leading to the identification of different intervention strategies. The latter represent answers to domestic comfort needs with different consequences in the preservation of original elements. The main goal of this research is to identify and characterize intervention strategies that result from a set of actions analysed in the case studies, and to develop instrumentation to guide future interventions, thus raising awareness to the potential and limitations of different degrees of transformation.