The barracks’ transformations in luso-brazilian military architecture

Abstract

Conflicts in the 17th century’s Iberian Peninsula led to the formation of a permanent army by the Portuguese Crown. New defensive structures and concern with logistical spaces, such as barracks, aimed at meeting the demand. In the military architecture specific typology, the Portuguese Brazilian barracks are the research’s focus, which aims to analyze the typological path. Therefore, a documental study of military treaties was conducted, alongside a theoretical precepts’ systematization and a comparative graphic representation in the treatises and in representative examples of the reflections on the barracks morphology. The results indicate there is a Portuguese military production, although the French influence is noticeable in the examples from the 18th century, similar to the fortified structures and thebarracks are classified into three groups: 1) fortified barracks built inside fortified structures; 2) isolated barracks; and 3) barracks in complexes, which are part of modern military complexes. With the gradual loss of fortifications’ functionality, were the barracks that acquired a protagonism, encompassing other logistics structures, such as prisons and command posts. This also reflected in a structure more elaborated and monumental in some representative cases.