OIKONET
Lisbon Workshop, July 14th - 19th 2014
Contemporary living patterns in mass housing in Europe

Group B: Izabela Grotowicz, Leonie Hagen, Andronikos Kalli, Dede Guclu, Mónica Cardoso, Jan Wyszkowski

Portela, a mass housing project built in the outskirts of Lisbon in 1965 by architect Fernando Silva, is defined by its central core (a commercial area) surrounded by 5 to 12 floor buildings, constructed by private developers. At the time, Portugal went through the transition from a dictatorship known as Estado Novo to a democratic regime. This was the period when Portuguese colonists returned to their motherland, which demanded the need of mass housing.

Today, Portela residents are still the descendants of the ex-colonists, so the neighborhood is like a big family. It has a big percentage of aging people and the common spaces don’t respond to the contemporary housing needs. The interiors of the apartments restrict any type social interaction between the family and the neighbors and the circulation space, which represents their only meeting space is uncomfortable, dark and prevents any kind of sharing.

Our proposal aims to improve the social life of the inhabitants through the creation of attractive common spaces within the building blocks.

We divided the building in three zones, with the spreading social character being distributed from the central area (including the circulation core) to the private accommodations. The social spaces vary between single and double height spaces with transformable limits.

Obviously the borders between the three zones are vague, due to the developing social interaction amongst the residents.