Lisbon «pátios» and «vilas», 1870-1930: private enterprise in working class housing

Abstract

From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, the gradual industrialisation of Lisbon brought increasing numbers of factory workers to the city. The population of the city increased, and at the same time the composition of social strata altered, with the emergence of a working class. For the housing needs of the established middle classes the urban system found its own solutions, with the construction of new avenues and new quarters. However, the housing needs of the so-called labouring classes were overlooked. These families were therefore obliged to settle on unoccupied land or in dilapidated buildings, where they improvised their own dwellings, paying rent to the landlord. The «pátios» came into being. With industry, public works and civil construction on the increase, growing labour needs intensified the process of urbanisation and brought flocks of migrants to the city. As the demand for housing grew ever faster, a new form of property development emerged, with the construction of high-density and poor-quality housing, which at the end of the century took the form of «vilas». The vilas were built to plans which differed considerably, depending on the land available, the relief and the surrounding public space. Most were built in the early years of this century, located on the outer fringes of the city, on land which was cheap and often insalubrious. The paper presents a study of the typologies of these developments.