A Infância na Cidade, Relações espaciais no projecto arquitectónico do Pós-Guerra

Abstract

The way the child is seen in architecture throughout time reflects the social understanding of childhood. It is therefore expected that when the social vision and role of the child change, architecture keeps up with it. This is what happened after the Second World War period. Given the studies carried out about the child and their development towards adulthood, as well as the need to boost natality rates on the countries affected by the war (baby-boom generation), the child became part of the debate around the restructuring of society. Moreover, with the destruction of several cities, high demand for housing arose, with new and better construction solutions. The conditions were set for architecture to answer this new social paradigm. The present dissertation aims at better understanding this answer. It intends to reflect on the spaces for children in housing and school, through the analysis of projects designed by postwar reference architects. This analysis is supplemented by the theorization of the child and their spaces by the same architects during CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture). The analysed projects are both built and unbuilt works from architects such as Le Corbusier, namely his habitation unit in Marseille and the Ville Radieuse, the English couple Smithsons, specifically the Golden Lane and Robin Hood Gardens complexes, and the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck, in particular, the village and school in Nagele and the orphanage in Amsterdam. Besides the projects, the thought of these and other authors is also analysed, especially in the context of CIAM, and later Team 10.