HISTORY OF PORTUGUESE ARCHITECTURE

REGENCE

The course of Portuguese History of Architecture builds upon a sequence of six key themes in synthesis, which are interwoven and will be dealt in a twofold path of thinking. Departing from the 18th century, the course follows the modes of architecture, looking into the references of history of architecture which were deemed of interest in shaping the relation between the past and correspondent presents, in each moment. But it takes also a second step forward and looks directly into the successive identified key moments, with the critical view of contemporary knowledge.

Significant elements of the narrative are therefore the relations to the past, and the particular architectural works that were looked upon, and themes which were object of interest, the increase in the capacity of seeing new things and the context in which they were newly read. Significant were also the shifts in attention which opened space for imagination and cogitation on the art of building. Overall these elements articulate meaning between past and present in a double perspective: as a theoretical understanding on the achievements of tradition and as a practice - the way thinking tradition could ground the sense for the intervention and form part of the craft of making new architectural ideas.

 

1 Program

[1]  18th to early 19th century; the end of Ancien Regime. Ambivalence in the age of Enlightenment. Baroque and Rococo. Clear, rational, pragmatic Portuguese Architecture and urbanism in the reconstruction of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755.

[2]  Portuguese Romanticisms in the nineteenth century. Amidst European and national political turmoil and social movements, the cult of monuments and the memory of key historic moments perceived as sharing a similar momentum in values and prospective outcomes: 14th to 16th century, changes on the threshold of modern age. Laic romance culture; municipalism; the development of the respublica in medieval cities. The Portuguese gesta of the Discoveries and conquests. Gothic modes in the monastery of Batalha. Manueline architecture.

[3]  In the context of 19th century nationalisms, picturesque and scientific journeys in search for identity. Cradles of nationality in Iberian Peninsula. Hispanic and Roman classical foundation and Early Medieval roots formed with references to Mediterranean cultures, Byzantine and Islamic, and North-European influxes. Architectural significant forms of antiquity reinvented. Past and present in context: Visigoth, Asturian, ’Roman-Byzantine’ and Mozarabe architectures.

[4]  With the second half of nineteenth centuries, the cosmopolitan view focused on Renaissance. The crafts of architecture and arts in search for a first accent of modernism. Inquiry into vernacular traditions and roots of ’Portuguese construction’; the ’Portuguese House’.

[5]  The 20th century paving the way to systematic renewed views on history of architecture and culture of the territory. The formation of Portugal; its most clear arts expression in Romanesque architecture.

[6]  In mid-century, rethinking modernity and tradition. The inquiry on current and popular architecture. Reading elements of permanence; invariants; types and series. The shape of time; the craft of the quotidian. Portuguese plain architecture.

 

2 Evaluation

Individual evaluation will be held on the base of a short essay written on the subject of a significant building considered in one of the six lessons.

 

3 Bibliography

ARQUITECTURA Popular em Portugal. 1ª ed. Lisboa : Associação Arquitectos Portugueses, 1961

LA ESPAÑA Romanica. Ed. Encuentro. (Colecção composta por 10 v.): V.: [Castilla 1 e 2; Cataluña 1 e 2; Leon y Asturias; Galicia; Navarra; Aragon;] El Prerromanico, Jacques Fontaine; El Mozarabe, Jacques Fontaine.

HISTÓRIA da Arte em Portugal. Lisboa : Editorial Presença, 2001.

HISTÓRIA da Arte em Portugal, 14 v. Lisboa : Alfa, 1986.

HISTÓRIA da arte portuguesa, dir. Paulo Pereira, 3 v. Lisboa : Temas e Debates, 1995. (Temas de História).

HISTÓRIA de Portugal, dir. José Mattoso. Lisboa : Editorial Estampa, 1993.

INVENTÁRIO do Património Arquitectónico. Disponível em url:  HYPERLINK "http://www.monumentos.pt" www.monumentos.pt.

KUBLER George. A arquitectura portuguesa chä : entre as especiarias e os diamantes : 1521-1706. 2ª ed. Lisboa : Vega, 2005.=KUBLER, George. Portuguese plain architecture between spices and diamonds : 1521-1706. Middletown : Wesleyan University Press, [Cop. 1972].

MATTOSO, J; S. Daveau ; D. Belo. Portugal. O sabor da terra. Lisboa : Círculo de Leitores, 1997.

MONUMENTOS, revista. Lisboa : Direcção Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais / Instituto da Habitação e da Reabilitação Urbana, n. 1-33 (-2013).

OCEANOS. Lisboa : Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1989-.

PORTAS, N. “A evolução da arquitectura moderna em Portugal: uma interpretação” . (1978), in Bruno ZEVI. História da Arquitectura Moderna, 2 v. Lisboa : Arcádia, 1970-1973, v. 2: 687-746.

MARTA OLIVEIRA