Experiences with reinforced concrete in portuguese africa: the Brazilian influence

Abstract

There is a similarity between modern brazilian culture and Portugal that is identifiable in regards to the influences of the former on portuguese architectural output. Generally speaking, the relationship began with Brazil builds - Architecture new and old 1652-1942, a book the portuguese became acquainted with from the 1940s onwards. This relationship progressed until the inauguration of the new Brazilian capital of Brasilia, which marked the beginning of a decline in portuguese interest in the architecture of Brazil. The sculptural qualities of brazilian architecture - a result of the experimentation and use of the potentials of reinforced concrete - can be identified in some examples built in Portugal in the 1950s. The decisive influence of Oscar Niemeyer is the most documented. A similar phenomenon in terms of brazilian influences extended to the former colonies in Africa, which remained under portuguese control until 1975. Here, however, the interest in brazilian output persisted longer than it did in Portugal. Both Angola and Mozambique experienced something of a construction boom during the 1950s and 1960s, extending into the 1970s, where the use of reinforced concrete gradually established itself as the dominant practice. In some cases, the use of this material produced some highly original sculptural creations. The practice of architecture in the former portuguese colonies in Africa benefited from a certain degree of conceptual freedom and, in general terms, the quality of workmanship was no different from that in Portugal itself. In the aforementioned context, the current author will present three architects with a relevant body of work in Angola and Mozambique who built in concrete and, at the same time, had or showed affinities with the brazilian architecture of the same period. In Angola, this article highlights the career of Francisco Castro Rodrigues, who lived in Lobito from 1953 to 1987, and Fernão Lopes Simões de Carvalho, who lived in Luanda from 1960 to 1967. In Lourenço Marques (present Maputo), Mozambique, this article looks at the work of Amâncio d'Alpoim Miranda Guedes, who was known as Pancho Guedes and worked in the city from 1951 to the year of independence from Portugal, when he moved to South Africa. Given that this is an area in which little research has been conducted, this first approach is based primarily on accounts by the three architects. The first two are currently living in Portugal and the last resides in Lisbon and South Africa.