Portuguese Modernism from Arquitectura Magazine (1927–1988). Three Cases of Interior Design in the 1950s

Abstract

This text intends to contribute to Portuguese Interior Design History based upon the documental study of Arquitectura Magazine (1927–1988). This Magazine was, at the time, in Portugal, a way to spread the work and knowledge developed in architecture and interior design, which, despite controversies in social, cultural and political matters, managed to remain outside the dictatorial ideology. The focus of this article is to discuss the decade of 1950s which represents for Portuguese Architecture, namely regarding Interiors, a period of searching for a Portuguese Modernism in critical dialogue with the achievements abroad. The principles of International Style, the influent writings of Le Corbusier and others, international exhibitions (as the 8th Triennial in Milan under the theme The House), numerous architectural projects were presented and discussed in Arquitectura. Throughout the interpretation of the 2nd and 3rd series focused in de decade of the 1950s and the analysis of three paradigmatic case studies it is aimed to illustrate the evolution of the architectural interest to design single-family houses interiors as a privileged realm of defining the contours of a modern Portuguese domesticity.