"Auto-Construção assistida. Práticas de projecto entre a experiência do habitante e o contributo do arquitecto".

Abstract

The theme of the following thesis has its main focus on the study of the underlying methodology in the processes of Assisted Self-­‐Construction and emerges from the motivation inherent to the comprehension of the dualism between the manual and empirical work of the inhabitant and the architect's erudite and disciplinary work. It contextualizes the origin of informal architecture and the urgency of methodological reorganisation and reinterpretation of the architect's role as a civic duty, in the 60s, taking into account the deep changes of life standards in the 20th century and the inappropriate responses of the current practices which proved to be insufficient and conducive to social, cultural and procedural detachment between inhabitant and architect. The Aldeia dos Índios da Meia Praia, in Lagos, appears as a study object which shares similar considerations with activist people who were intensively involved in the housing issues. The project emerges from the scope of SAAL program (Local Ambulatory Support Service), in the troubled context of the Carnation Revolution, in 1974. It consists in the rehousing of a physically and socially detached community from the society and in the democratization of its processes. This project is based on Social Sciences and on the dialectics between architect and inhabitant, and stands out because of its methodology grounded in the cooperation and self-­‐help of the community, as well as the special attention given to the specificities of each inhabitant. It is a project that stands on a principle of "open building"2, which allows a continuous adaptation of the house to the individuals needs, intending to provide new ways of life, enhance social and territorial inclusion and reduce precariousness in housing that many times led to contexts unworthy of human condition.The practices based on the interrelationship between architect and inhabitant blur the boundaries between them and allow to detect fundamental matters related to Architecture: in what way is the architect able to answer the inhabitants needs and to what extent he interferes with everyday life? What's the architect's role in a process submitted to transformation so as to meet the changeful needs of the inhabitant, according to practices and ways different from society's established patterns? What are the principles that guide the processes where the spheres of control are restructured and determined when sharing responsabilities? The choice of this theme lies, essentially, in a personal disquiet and in the oportunity to develop a study of an unconventional methodology that goes beyond the programme contents of "Author's Architecture", believing that there are parallel paths which equally plausible for the answer to the worldwide housing problem and to the integration of territories of informal origin (and their inhabitants) in urban systems.