Viver numa casa do Siza: a experiência da arquitetura de autor na Malagueira, Évora

Abstract

This article draws on the genealogy of studies on the house in Portuguese Anthropology and Architecture as well as on recent perspectives coming from the Geographies of Architecture, to explore the way residents of auteur architecture experience their homes and neighbourhoods. Focusing on Malagueira neighbourhood in Évora, a large housing estate designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira in the late 1970’s to accommodate low-income populations, which has since integrated more affluent residents, the article seeks to answer questions about what it means to live in a house and a housing estate designed by a renowned architect; how individual modes of inhabitation relate to the relatively austere design and aesthetics of Siza’s architecture; and finally about residents’ relationship with the architectural elements that make the house work. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and the Show Us Your Home ethno-methodology, the article fills a research gap on residents’ experience of Siza’s architecture.