Existenzminimum - a questão da habitação mínima entre o moderno e o cntemporaneo

Abstract

e objective of this thesis is the study of Existenzminimum (the German expression for: minimum housing units) and the understandig of how this way of construction was achieved and which consequences of this new spatial conception were brought into reality. "Minimum housing unit" revealed during the 20th century, the concern of how to react to the need for creating urban spaces, which had emerged in a discontinuous way, as a consequence of social transformations, that moved nonurban (rural) masses into the center of the large cities. is process was compounded by the First World War and continued in the Republic of Weimar. Moreover, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 in New York caused a depression of the world economy, with consequences in the urban planning in the metropolis of the capitalist centers. Specially, in defeated Germany of the twenties and thirties this new situation was felt with more evidence. e housing issue gained importance, both in its construction (need due to the devastations of war) and in its discussion (need to rebuild, in large quantities), and in particular the second meeting of CIAM3 in Frankfurt/Main in 1929, the concept of Wohnung für das Existenzminimum presented itself as a claim. During the congress the participants tried to formulate a program to reconcile the requirements of the physical creation of living space, from the economic and technical point of view of material resources and optimized use of space and tolerable social cohesion. To carry out this program, the architecture would assume a social conscience and abandon its individualistic view, replacing it with patterns of collective housing in large urban fronts, based on scienti!c studies and creating models of production and reproduction of housing types. To make this possible, a series of investigations and studies were needed to ensure accuracy of the new values that would be stipulated. Architects like Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut and Ernst May developed minimum standardized housing units, by taking advantage of the potential of the new construction industries. ese buildings adopted the name of Siedlungen4 . Important factors such as empowerment of women in society, and their integration into the labor market, led to studies on the use of the kitchen space in order to rationalize and optimize it, like the famous Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by Margarete Schütte Lihotzky. It was, therefore, an intervention in which the architecture tried to de!ne a suitable human-type or a family-type. Aer the Second World War and during the sixties and seventies, the issue of minimum habitat "moved" to the south of Europe, in particular to Portugal. Here, the issue of minimum housing was also considered in a very vigorous way, but not taken as the main theme: investigations, measurements, questionnaires were also conducted in order to !nd an ideal housing model and at the same time set a minimum standard susceptible to be used in future construction. e portuguese architects Teotónio Pereira and Nuno Portas became protagonists in the development of methodologies for experimentation and determination of standard measures. e reformist and claiming spirit, encouraged and strengthened by the "25th April 1974 Revolution" allowed the creation of a state body, Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local (Ambulant Service of Local Support), which would deal exclusively with the issue of social housing.