MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE
Faro stands out as a modernist city in southern Europe, with around 500 buildings in a somewhat unusual modernist style, because it is heavily adapted to the Algarve climate: flat roofs owing to the low rainfall, cement blocks/grilles to provide protection from the sun and light, colourful tiles, and the influence of Latin American modernist architecture.
It was in the post-war period that the modernist renaissance took place in the city of Faro and we can say that the space of the historic Café Aliança is the «father» of this modern movement in the South, as it was here that architects and other personalities met and discussed the using architecture as a tool of contestation, presenting the Southern modernist movement as an artistic and political way of contesting Salazar and his traditional Portuguese architecture.
The success of the Modernist Movement in the city is due, among others, to the positioning of the local authorities who did not occasionally oppose modernism, wanting it to be sober, simple and functional, through various orders, along with the very important role of emigrants, who left for latin america and returned to Faro with the desire to express their success through avant-garde modernism.
The success of the Modernist Movement in the city is due, among others, to the positioning of the local authorities who did not occasionally oppose modernism, wanting it to be sober, simple and functional, through various orders, along with the very important role of emigrants, who left for latin america and returned to Faro with the desire to express their success through avant-garde modernism.
The document was produced within the framework of the first edition of MI.MOMO
Gomes da Costa (Faro), Manuel Laginha (Loulé) and Vicente de Castro (Portimão) are names inextricably linked to the Modernist Movement in the Algarve Region.
It is to them that we owe the most characteristic examples of what is known as the Modern Architecture of the International Movement, i.e. post-war architecture, built in the region.
Municipal Interest Set
Most of the buildings being studied and produced through the MI.MOMO.FARO project are located in the urban area between the Municipal Market and the João de Deus Secondary School, which has been classified as an Area of Municipal Interest since August 2020.
Despite the fact that this urban area has nowadays lost some of its character owing to the later construction of tall buildings, it occupies a central location in the city and still retains an important formal homogeneity, with good examples of the traditionalist architecture of the Estado Novo (New State) and of experimental modernism, which, little by little, started to appear in Faro. For the most part, these buildings were designed in the 1940s and 1950s.
Despite the fact that this urban area has nowadays lost some of its character owing to the later construction of tall buildings, it occupies a central location in the city and still retains an important formal homogeneity, with good examples of the traditionalist architecture of the Estado Novo (New State) and of experimental modernism, which, little by little, started to appear in Faro. For the most part, these buildings were designed in the 1940s and 1950s.