Dwelling: from the House to the City

Research Coordinator: Hugo L. Farias

It seeks to develop research on housing in its multiple scales: from the internal space of the house, to the building, to the neighborhood and to the city. It addresses the dwelling and housing architecture of Portuguese-speaking spaces, in a time frame that spans from the end of the 19th century, the entire 20th century and the first decades of the 21st century, seeking to collect, read, analyze, understand and disseminate relevant knowledge about the house, the residential building, the housing development and the public space related thereto. Morphological, typological, spatial-functional, spatial-social, environmental and other readings are promoted, seeking to support a reflection on housing in contemporary times, pointing out clues, principles and strategies for the design and construction of a renewed housing architecture in line with the Objectives of Sustainable Development of the United Nations: adequate, accessible, diverse and quality housing. The Dwelling: from the House to the City Research Line thus focuses on dwelling and housing architecture, one of the most important topics for the architectural discipline in our times. In fact, the housing shortage that characterizes not only developing countries but also developed countries, has made it a primary concern to study and develop new architectural solutions that can give answer to the dweller’s needs. One of the United Nations’ seventeen Sustainable Development Goals(SDG), the improvement of cities and human settlements emphasizes the need to rethink contemporary housing to create adequate, accessible, diverse, and high-quality urban spaces for all. Addressing these objectives, the line develops three sublines, focusing on specific themes that address the dwelling/housing question from different angles, readings and scales.

Research sublines

Housing in Hindsight, Housing Ahead

It focuses on the analysis of residential architectural solutions of the past – considering mainly the 20th century as a time frame, but stretching back to the late 19th century, and forward, to the first decades of the 21st– that can be relevant and productive for contemporary rethinking of housing. This line calls upon the estates of the ARCHIVES, amongst other research sources, to develop part of its case study work, and is responsible for the development of several research projects, PhD and Master’s Theses, the publication of papers and book chapters, and the realization of several lectures internationally.

Rethinking Contemporary Dwelling

This subline aims to study contemporary dwelling spaces – both collective and individual – focusing on the need for adequacy between uses, spatial and functional structure, residential and architectural quality, and the new and emerging modes of living. The research aims to analyze and evaluate the profound social, economic and technological changes that are taking place in western societies – with severe consequences in lifestyles and dwelling modes– seeking to assess their importance for the programming and design of new dwellings. The themes of active and passive flexibility, of adaptability and polyvalence, the possibilities of de-hierarchization and spatial ambiguity and of environmental sustainability, as possible responses to the achievement of a more versatile and open-use dwelling architecture, are addressed. The themes of project participation, evolution of designs and questions relating the need to reduce costs in the production of mass-scale dwelling interventions for specific areas where the lack of proper housing is significant, are also addressed in the research.

The City of the Future

It aims to reflect on the architecture of the contemporary city, focusing on housing buildings and public facilities, and their relationship to public space, mobility, green and blue structures, issues of memory, identity and diversity. Its main objective is to seek to identify, analyze, propose and develop new solutions for a city of the future, more sustainable, more resilient, greener, more humanized and more identity-based. A city with a better future.

Back