Os bairros operários da Companhia de Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses. O Caso do Entroncamento até à primeira metade do século XX

Abstract

The political instability lived in Portugal during the transition of the 19th century to the 20th century, strongly contributed to the shielding of Portugal from international influences and to the need of a National Identity. Yet, was born in Portugal - by the hand of those who looked in modern architecture for a solution to the new architectural and social programs - an architecture of inevitable modernity that searched a new path towards a national architecture. The railroad architecture of the beginning of the 20th century is, in this way, product of a sifting of international styles and ideologies, and of a double filter between Europe and Portugal, and Portugal and the Portuguese Railroad Company. This would result in a mixed architecture, with a hybrid character, somewhere between the ideology of the Casa Portuguesa (Portuguese House) and the modern programs. Essentially born from a straight connection with the railroad, the city of Entroncamento doesn't show great architecture. In spite, it is an enormous field of experimentation for the new architectural doctrines and for the spacial utopias that marked the end of the Portuguese and European 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. This work is about these experiences that focused mainly on the housing crisis and in the search of its solution.