Urban working class housing in Setúbal in de first third of the XX century

Abstract

From the end of the last century onwards, the growing industrialisation of certain urban areas brought with it a number of serious problems. The threat to health encouraged the state to intervene in regulating urban development and heightened concerns about the imbalances generated by modern cities. The application of sanitary principles contributed to the emergence of new types of housing, breaking away from traditional rural models. Single storey houses, wooden and masonry shack-dwellings, and terraces and other complexes, such as the renque and vila, are examples of the forms which used cheap materials supplied by industry and which were designed to house workers and the lower strata of the petite bourgeoisie. Urban housing for the people resulted from a compromise between the need to maintain standards of  salubrity and a pattern of speculative behaviour, extending down to the lower classes of the population, which took hold with the growth of the market for rented accommodation. This article focuses on the city of Setúbal, and examines the question from a double perspective. On the one hand, it seeks to analyse the process of urban growth which accompanied the expansion of the fish canning industry, and on the other hand it describes the new forms of housing designed to supply the rented accommodation market for poorer families.