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 19thcentury to the 20th century, strongly contributed to the shielding of Portugalfrom international influences and to the need of a National Identity.Yet, was born in Portugal - by the hand of those who looked in modernarchitecture for a solution to the new architectural and social programs - anarchitecture of inevitable modernity that searched a new path towards anational architecture.The railroad architecture of the beginning of the 20th century is, in thisway, product of a sifting of international styles and ideologies, and of adouble filter between Europe and Portugal, and Portugal and the PortugueseRailroad Company. This would result in a mixed architecture, with ahybrid 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 ofEntroncamento doesn't show great architecture. In spite, it is an enormousfield of experimentation for the new architectural doctrines and for thespacial utopias that marked the end of the Portuguese and European 19thcentury and the beginning of the 20th century.This work is about these experiences that focused mainly on the housingcrisis and in the search of its solution.