What was the role of Architecture supporting Portuguese colonialism during the colonial war (1961-74)? Starting from the scarce bibliography that questions Architecture, Colonialism and War (He17;He18), but also pondering the interplay between Violence and Colonialism (LuMo14), the research focuses on the production of Housing during the liberation wars in the former Portuguese C ontinental Africa, and its repercussions in the immediate post-independence of Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique. It entails 2 phases: 1)assessment of the housing production carried out in the last 14 years of colonialism (and late Salazarism), considering the colonial society and the 3 agents of Colonial Public Works (C PW) involved, through archival and documentary treatment, cartography and historical description; 2)its identification and critical analysis in the immediate period of 1974/75 (abandonment, reconfiguration, appropriation) and its contribution to inequality in access and housing quality (plastic, technical, functional) by post-independence societies. The research explores the role of war in the emergence of control mechanisms based on Architecture and Urbanism, taking housing as epicentral. It observes 3 scenarios: a) Middle-class and affordable urban expansion neighborhoods, built over slums, to lodge and control populations; b) Settlements located in strategic economic areas; c) Rural resettlements resulting from the massive displacement of African peasants. A continuous reading between colonization and post-independence will be traced, relating the current right to housing with the different residential infrastructures inherited from the colonial period. In the 1st phase, the study considers 3 groups of inhabitants involved in colonial narratives: a) European settlers; b) Assimilados; c) African populations. It analyzes urban and rural landscapes and identifies the 3 main colonial agents: a)Self-employed Architects, in urban environments, using the architectural culture on collective housing programs; b)Technicians (architects, engineers and others) from the different C PW departments, intervening on urban and rural territories, focused on compromise solutions between a disciplinary approach (idealistic) and an efficient response (pragmatic) to meet quantitative demands, with relative success in cities (medium-scale neighborhoods for African workers) and settlements of natural resources exploitation (agricultural and mineral); c)Military with different backgrounds, making use of orthogonal grids and standardization techniques, with significant efficiency in the production of single-family housing for rural populations. Their performance will be analyzed and described within the methodologies of Architecture, Urbanism and History, based on concepts related to practices of C PW, such as i)Segregation (DoPe13); ii)C ontrol in design (Sc94); iii)Standardization (Id); iv)Modernization (UnMa10); v)Design with the climate (Ol63); vi)Mass-violence (DwNeRy18); vii)Villagisation (Lo00). The research will assess how this housing terminology was used by different agents and its postindependence reformulation. Supported by international State of the Art, these reading keys will be applied to the Portuguese case testing new approaches, highlighting the war effort in the maintenance of colonialism and use of housing as a “weapon”, both in counterinsurgency operations and restrictions on colonial populations mobility, through modern strategic planning and urban zoning. Specific roles played by non-governmental and corporative institutions in war zones will be considered at this point. Studying 3 countries from a comparative perspective will allow to approach Portuguese colonial practices comprehensively and identify national specificities. Overseas and Military Historical Archives have extensive documentation from C PW and military departments on housing production (architecture, urban plans, reports). Its treatment by the current project will make it accessible to the scientific community. The team is composed of Port., Angolan, Mozambican and Guinean researchers, architects, historians and archivists. External institutions – A. Neto Un., IPGUL (Urb. Planning Man. Inst. of Luanda) and E. Mondlane Un. – secure support to local archives and fieldwork in the 1st phase, playing a key role in the evaluation proposed on the 2nd phase. Researchers will be assisted by the consultants: i)terminology and characterization (C astela; Scriver); ii)international context and comparative studies (Henni; Lagae); iii)support to fieldwork and post-colonial analysis (Amado/G-B; Lage/Moz). C ase studies will be mapped based on specialized cartography and historically described to create HPIP records. They will also be drawn on a GIS model, accompanied by verification of the conservation state and postindependence appropriations. Post-colonial critical analysis will allow cross readings with ongoing research by the African scientific community.

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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.