Beira: uma paisagem modernista na África Tropical = Beira: a modernist landscape in Tropical Africa

Abstract

Beira is a complex and unique case study regarding the implementation of modernist ideas in tropicalcountries. The city became prosperous due to the high yields provided by its rail and port interface connectingto Rhodesia/Zimbabwe; it attracted wealth, ambitious, talented young Portuguese architects and civilengineers that built a paradoxical metropolis, filled with iconic modernist buildings, complex and unorthodoxtechnical solutions that filled an unique urban plan in the Portuguese colonial Africa. This article discusses thecity expansion process based on a modernist matrix, deeply influenced by Brazilian architectural and urbanimaginary, emphasizing the application of modernist influence in the citys expansion logic as well as technical and political options. It also discusses the importance of the exchange of ideas; and urban and architecturalmodels among Portuguese architects and civil engineers based in Mozambique. The authors methodologicallyconducted an established recognition fieldwork of the citys matrix and identified the modernist architecturallegacy of Brazilian influence by selecting the most emblematic examples among the buildings.