MODERNIST ARCHITECTURE IN FARO
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 city of Faro saw a modernist renaissance, and the historic Café Aliança can be said to be the “father” of this modern movement in the south, because it was here that architects and other figures met and discussed the political system, using architecture as a tool for challenging the status quo, with the modernist movement of the south presenting itself as an artistic and political way of challenging Salazar and his traditional Portuguese architecture.
The success of the Modernist Movement in the city was due, among other things, to the stance of the local authorities, which, unusually, did not object to modernism, but wanted it to be restrained, simple and functional in a wide range of commissions, and to the crucial role of emigrants who went to Latin America and returned Faro with a desire to demonstrate their success through avant-garde modernism.
The success of the Modernist Movement in the city was due, among other things, to the stance of the local authorities, which, unusually, did not object to modernism, but wanted it to be restrained, simple and functional in a wide range of commissions, and to the crucial role of emigrants who went to Latin America and returned Faro with a desire to demonstrate their success through avant-garde modernism.
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.
Casa da Primeira Infância em Loulé pelo arquiteto Manuel Laginha
|
Lar da criança em Portimão pelo arquiteto Vicente de Castro
|
Conjunto de Interesse Municipal
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.
