Theses defended
From the organization of space to the organization of society. A study of the political commitments in post-war Portuguese architecture, 1945-69
May 4, 2017
Doutoramento em Arquitetura
José António Bandeirinha
e
Nuno Porto
This dissertation emerged in the wake of the 2008 real-estate crisis and a will to discuss, understand and project the role professional architecture might play in reorganizing collective stakes. The aim was to understand how architecture's expert knowledge contributed to the political construction of reality.
This was developed through the study of a group of Portuguese architects and architecture practices from mid-20th century, specifically from 1945 to 1969. The study of the career of Portuguese architect Fernando Távora (1923-2005) was the starting point and mediator to a specific collective universe of professional formation, urban development and political embattlement. Távora was agent of a cultureof architecture in which the ideas of respecting the context, commitment to local needs and history, internationally projected by the reputation of Porto architects Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura, were first articulated. Thus, this dissertation transports a dual questioning: how did post-war Portuguese architects interpret the discipline as politically committed? And, what can we learn from this specific case about the political constitution of the practice of professional architecture? These questions are answered through the study of two elements of professional-political construction: expert discourses and their relations to government, power and political ideology; architecture designs and their relation to the transformation of Portuguese landscapes. The study of discourses cross-reads the development of architecture expert discourses with the emergence of problems of government and languages of power and govenment. This study of discourses derives from an ethnographic study of architecture designs, based on guidelines from material and spatial anthropology.
This dissertation attempts to seize architectural designs in their articulations and projections of community, comfort, modernity and culture.
The first part of the dissertation, comprising chapters 1 to 3, addresses the formation of a collective project for professional architecture developed by young architects in the post-war, and attempting to draw democratic ideals and practices closer. The second part, comprising chapters 4 to 6, addresses how this collective project of architecture involved the putting forward of a particular view of the city and its edifying mission in national well-being. The third part, comprising chapter 7, adresses how this style of apprehending the city was practiced in the case of an urban renewal process. These parts assemble together a specific urban history and culture, pedagogical experiments in architecture education, and architectural practices that sought to reframe Portuguese urban reality through a professional reframing.
This dissertation discusses the intimacies and distinctions between a professional and a political project, transported by the debated identification of being Portuguese with being modern. It discusses how a project of architecture practice articulated a style of apprehending the city and, thus, of performing a desired urban community through the bodies of architecture. It presents arguments for the discussion of how modern architecture practices perform the nation-state and national culture. It identifies how an architecture for a true national culture, with a style of apprehending the city, made a political construction pass through the practice of spatial organization. This dissertation aims to contribute to the identification of some elements allowing to draw architecture's expert culture closer to democracy.
Public Defence date
Doctoral Programme
Supervision
Abstract
This was developed through the study of a group of Portuguese architects and architecture practices from mid-20th century, specifically from 1945 to 1969. The study of the career of Portuguese architect Fernando Távora (1923-2005) was the starting point and mediator to a specific collective universe of professional formation, urban development and political embattlement. Távora was agent of a cultureof architecture in which the ideas of respecting the context, commitment to local needs and history, internationally projected by the reputation of Porto architects Álvaro Siza Vieira and Eduardo Souto de Moura, were first articulated. Thus, this dissertation transports a dual questioning: how did post-war Portuguese architects interpret the discipline as politically committed? And, what can we learn from this specific case about the political constitution of the practice of professional architecture? These questions are answered through the study of two elements of professional-political construction: expert discourses and their relations to government, power and political ideology; architecture designs and their relation to the transformation of Portuguese landscapes. The study of discourses cross-reads the development of architecture expert discourses with the emergence of problems of government and languages of power and govenment. This study of discourses derives from an ethnographic study of architecture designs, based on guidelines from material and spatial anthropology.
This dissertation attempts to seize architectural designs in their articulations and projections of community, comfort, modernity and culture.
The first part of the dissertation, comprising chapters 1 to 3, addresses the formation of a collective project for professional architecture developed by young architects in the post-war, and attempting to draw democratic ideals and practices closer. The second part, comprising chapters 4 to 6, addresses how this collective project of architecture involved the putting forward of a particular view of the city and its edifying mission in national well-being. The third part, comprising chapter 7, adresses how this style of apprehending the city was practiced in the case of an urban renewal process. These parts assemble together a specific urban history and culture, pedagogical experiments in architecture education, and architectural practices that sought to reframe Portuguese urban reality through a professional reframing.
This dissertation discusses the intimacies and distinctions between a professional and a political project, transported by the debated identification of being Portuguese with being modern. It discusses how a project of architecture practice articulated a style of apprehending the city and, thus, of performing a desired urban community through the bodies of architecture. It presents arguments for the discussion of how modern architecture practices perform the nation-state and national culture. It identifies how an architecture for a true national culture, with a style of apprehending the city, made a political construction pass through the practice of spatial organization. This dissertation aims to contribute to the identification of some elements allowing to draw architecture's expert culture closer to democracy.