The study of urban form in Portugal Vítor Oliveira, Magda Barbosa and Paulo Pinho CITTA - Centro de Investigação do Território, Transportes e Ambiente, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Roberto Frias 4200-465 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Revised version received 11 June 2010 Abstract. The origins, development and main characteristics of the study of urban form in Portugal are reviewed. After considering contributions during the middle of the twentieth century, attention is focused on recent developments. Fundamental themes in urban morphology as a field of knowledge are identified and characterized. These include the history of urban form, the relationships between urban morphology and building typology, morphological techniques, and the links between description, explanation and prescription. Key Words: urban morphology, urban form, disciplinary history, Portugal This review of research on urban morphology Early developments in Portugal includes studies of Portuguese cities by both Portuguese and non-Portuguese Despite the existence of earlier topographical scholars. It includes research on Portuguese writing (see, for example, Costa, 1788) and colonial cities but not on other cities outside historical dictionaries on the processes of city Portugal. building (such as that by Viterbo, 1899), the Reviews of the study of urban form in first Portuguese studies with a clear morph- Portugal are rare. However, Manuel Teixeira ological dimension were carried out as (1993, 2008a) provides two valuable syntheses recently as the middle of the twentieth century. from the perspective of urban history. Both, Owing to the country’s rich history, partic- particularly the earlier one, present the history ularly in the Age of Discovery, Portuguese of the Portuguese city and its planning as cartography was a key source of information interesting objects of study, but they reveal for morphological research. At the beginning these fields to be relatively undeveloped of the second half of the twentieth century two compared with their counterparts in North important works capitalized on this. Silveira America and many other countries in Europe. (1951) brought together the fundamental icon- The study of urban history in Portugal has ography of Portuguese colonial towns around been developing in a fragmented way, with the world. His study is profusely illustrated several historical periods not studied and some with more than 1100 figures, and is structured disciplinary approaches under-represented. according to seven geographical areas – Urban Morphology (2011) 15(1), 55-66 © International Seminar on Urban Form, 2011 ISSN 1027-4278 56 The study of urban form in Portugal Morocco, the Azores and Madeira, East for Portuguese and colonial cities. Africa, West Africa, West Asia, East Asia, and Three studies with an architectural Brazil. Silveira argues that Portugal had a perspective on urban morphology are of note. pioneering role in the creation and The first is Casas Portuguesas by Raul Lino establishment of modern colonial towns. He (1933), an architect whose work has been points out the unusual number of Portuguese undervalued owing to its association with the cities established around the world, and the dictatorial regime of 1926 to 1974. It is the number of similarities and differences between result of a careful typomorphological analysis, Portuguese cities and Portuguese colonial noting the main characteristics of Portuguese cities. Five years later, Chicó (1956) residential buildings. The second was published a paper on the influence of ‘ideal’ published by the National Union of Architects plans of Renaissance cities on the structure of and synthesizes the results of an extensive Portuguese cities in India. He compares the survey of regional architecture, carried out Portuguese (apparently more organic) and between 1955 and 1960 (Sindicato Nacional Spanish (supposedly more rational) forms of dos Arquitectos, 1961). Confronted, on the city building. He also compares the one hand, by the oppressive censorship of the Portuguese settlements in Brazil and India, and Portuguese dictatorship and, on the other, by a discusses a number of fundamental issues such radical international style, the Portuguese as the formulation of a theory based on architects felt the need to look for roots in iconography and historical maps, and the vernacular architecture, leading to this supposed monotony of particular cities and comprehensive analysis of the national buildings. At the end of the 1950s, as part of territory. The authors conclude, contrary to the celebration of the fifth centenary of the Lino’s view, that there is neither a specifically death of Henrique o Navegador, Mota and Portuguese architecture nor a typical Cortesão (1960) published Portugaliae Portuguese house. The third study analyses a Monumenta Cartographica. This extensive particular residential type, the so-called collection of early manuscript charts is a major solares in the North of Portugal (Azevedo, contribution to the history of Portuguese 1969). cartography. It comprises six volumes, with In this period the research work of three more than 1000 reproductions of maps, geographers is noteworthy. Ribeiro (1962) covering the period between the fifteenth and analyses a number of aspects of Portuguese the seventeenth centuries. In a book review, colonization, including the characteristics of Crone (1960) considered this research to be settlements in Portugal and their influence on one of the cornerstones of the history of the various colonial territories. Oliveira European cartography. Like Silveira’s book, (1973) produced the first thesis in urban it includes text in English and Portuguese. In geography, focusing exclusively on a addition two other works should be mentioned: particular Portuguese city. He synthesizes Amaral (1978) on the urbanization of Angola; many of the relevant data on Oporto and and Rodrigues (1979) on the main features of provides a view of its urban development Portuguese colonial planning, focusing on the process and spatial variety. Gaspar (1969) Brazilian cities of Olinda and Recife. explores the geometrical patterns used in the A key work, Lisboa Pombalina e o design of towns in the Middle Ages. A Iluminismo, was published in the mid-1960s number of towns established in the thirteenth (Franca, 1966). This is a historical analysis of century in the Alentejo region, in bordering an individual city. It analyses the recon- territories or in recently colonized areas, are struction of downtown Lisbon after the analysed and found to have characteristics that earthquake of 1755, which was carried out reflect their planned origin. In addition, according to a plan prepared by Eugénio dos Gaspar (1968) analyses the main spatial Santos and Carlos Mardel. This is an example features of Muslim cities. of early town planning that provided a model The study of urban form in Portugal 57 The history of urban form planning. Focusing on the form of cities with Portuguese origins, Teixeira (2008b) divides Throughout the last decade the work the subject matter into three parts. The first developed in the Instituto Superior de Ciências consists of the morphological characterization do Trabalho e da Empresa under the co- of the Portuguese traçados (street system) – ordination of Teixeira constitutes a major namely Portuguese urban planning, relations contribution to the study of the evolution of between the territory and the traçados, plan the ‘Portuguese city’. It includes work by hierarchy and the main urban elements, the Rosália Guerreiro, Teresa Madeira, Teresa structure of urban blocks and plots, urban Marat-Mendes and Margarida Valla. squares and the planning process. The second First, there has been the construction of a presents the history of Salvador da Baía, in Digital Archive of Urban Cartography (see Brazil, demonstrating how its form synthesizes Teixeira, 2000). This comprises a digital Portuguese town planning of the sixteenth database, including references and images century. Finally, the third part analyses the relating to urban cartography and iconography. plan for the reconstruction of downtown The main objectives of the archive are the Lisbon. identification and organization of historical Like the congress on ‘A praça na cidade urban cartography; the selection and Portuguesa’, the ‘Colóquio Internacional reproduction of the most relevant digital Universo Urbanístico Português, 1415-1822’ cartography; the structuring of a digital (papers collected by Rossa et al., 2001) was a database articulating cartographic records and major contribution to the study of the history digital images; and the dissemination of these of the Portuguese city. This conference was data through the Internet. part of a wider initiative intended to develop Secondly, this research group has been and disseminate knowledge on the history of publishing a journal, Urbanismo de Origem Portuguese urban planning. Portuguesa, the only Portuguese periodical A number of books published by the focused on urban morphology. Its main goal Faculty of Architecture of the University of is the investigation and characterization of Oporto during the last decade have also urban forms in cities of Portuguese origin or constituted a solid input to the study of urban influenced by the Portuguese. form in Portugal. The works of Ferreira Thirdly, three books by these authors merit (1995), Fernandes (1996) and Correia (2008) attention. The work of Teixeira