Bairros de habitação popular no Porto, 1899-1933. A prática de uma Arquitectura Económica, Saudável e Cómoda nas vésperas do Moderno

Abstract

The thesis analyses the process of developing new forms of dwelling addressed to the working classes starting from the moment when, in the late nineteenth century, life in the city was under reform measures instigated by the social economy and the hygienism with strong impact on habits, ways of dwelling, domestic and public space renovation and, consequently, structuring a new urban order. In this scope, the study focuses on the establishment of low-income housing in Porto taking place amid 1899 and 1933. The aim of the investigation was to understanding the dynamics related to the emergence of new conceptual models about simple and regular urban housing. The empirical material involving primary sources was mainly obtained in national and municipality archives, consisting essentially of architectural design projects. By means of this information the research verifies the circumstances in which the housing solutions were idealized under the imperative of being cheap, healthy and comfortable. Those three conditions appear to have determined a new architecture of the house distinct from one historically used to build the industrial and liberal urban form of Porto. In the dissertation a number of disciplinary problems considered as keys were identified and isolated to verify the genesis of this type of housing: the discussion between single and multi-family housing; the regulatory effect on domestic space conception; the relationship between city and countryside related to informal urban growth areas; or the problem amid model and type as distinct reproducers of architectural solutions. Thus, an early stage of the minimum modern house is enunciated within a narrative centered on affordable housing issue confirming, in the timeframe between the end of the Constitutional Monarchy and the beginning of Estado Novo dictatorship, an ideological continuity dominated by single-family houses architecture.