NUNO TEOTÓNIO PEREIRA AWARD 2016 (Honorable Mention)

Lagarteiro neighborhood is a social housing set planned to the outskirts of Porto, in the 1970s. Lagarteiro design, like other projects of that time, followed a matrix followed by Porto municipality, which corresponded to housing buildings with four floors, surrounding a primary school and a sport facility. This model, resulted of the so-called Improvement Plan of the City (Plano de Melhoramentos da Cidade), launched in late 1950s. The main goal of the plan was rehousing people which lived in precarious conditions in the ‘islands’ of Porto city center. This policy precedes the participative methodology of the SAAL program (Ambulatory Service for Local Support), sketched by Nuno Portas, as Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Planning, between 1974 and 1976.
Lagarteiro integrates thirteen blocks, deployed according to a scheme adapted to the former agriculture fields topography that feature the area at the time. Buildings were designed in 1973 and 1976 by Domingos Faria (blocks 1 to 8) and Florêncio Neto de Carvalho (blocks 9 to 13), respectively, as municipal technicians.
Almost 50 years passed after the Lagarteiro construction. The renovation project allowed to invert the bad damage situation of the buildings. Today the place has overpassed its peripheral stigma, being much more connected with the core of the city. The architectural intervention contributed to improve the civic condition of Lagarteiro inhabitants. The project foresaw facades renovation, stairwell closure; roof changed, replacement of all windows and doors; water, electricity and gas supply including new communication nets, and public space. After the intervention Lagarteiro neighborhood became a more sustainable place, stimulating urban life quality.