Abstract

MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz. Africanicity and colonial architecture: Housing designed by the Colonial Planning Office (1944-1974). Cadernos de Estudos Africanos [online]. 2013, n.25, pp.121-139. ISSN 1645-3794.

Can an official, centralised body produce architecture with a “regional” approach? The architecture of the Gabinete de Urbanização Colonial (Colonial Planning Office) in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa has been interpreted as a reflection of, and as propaganda for, the Estado Novo regime. In the early sixties, the office’s output began to engage with more localised ideas regarding architectural forms. An awareness of “African regionalisms”, albeit a tentative one, began to show itself in the reflections of the designers; this was also a result of the training they had received abroad. During this period, one can identify two approaches. The first regards the enormity of the rehousing task (i.e., the provision of housing for all social strata) and the specificities demanded by indigenous communities for an architecture that reflected their traditional lifestyles and methods. Second, in the housing for European settlers, references to traditional Portuguese architecture were incorporated as a way of helping people from the metropole not feel uprooted in the colonies. Thus, in predominantly African communities, internationally progressive design methods respecting local identities were introduced, while in European quarters, nostalgic and artificially re-created metropolitan regionalisms took root in an unfamiliar environment.

Keywords : Portuguese-African architecture; colonial housing; traditional African housing; Colonial Planning Office; House of the Settler; Estado Novo.

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