In the 1960s and 1970s, large-scale Portuguese architectural production was largely promoted by the
State. This took further aspects after the 1974 revolution when housing construction became one of the
pillars of the new state policy. It is in this context that Manuel Vicente develops the project for Quinta do
Bacalhau in different times: 1– Before 1974 by EPUL as part of UNOR 26 of which M. Vicente was the
coordinator, 2– From 1974 as a SAAL operation after the site was taken over by a residents' committee,
3– After 1976, as it was built outside the revolutionary period by a housing cooperative and financed by
the state. Unlike most SAAL projects – small, contained and with low-row houses –, and despite the
ideologically marked circumstances of this period, it presents somehow ostentatious. Volumes of broad
and generous features, incorporation of commerce on the ground floors like a boulevard, contrast with
the dominant model, thus raising some questions: – to what extent did a particular class position
correspond to a certain typology, style, etc.? – wouldn't this imply an aspiration to the same “rights” as
the middle-class, as far as architecture is concerned? M. Vicente remains throughout his life in an
ideologically multifaceted position. Close to the Communist Party, he has a cosmopolitan experience still
in the 1960s being in touch with the Western capitalism – in the United States and in Macao – and in
close contact with the speculation and profit markets. It has thus a double folded stance regarding the
state-sponsored housing and low standards one, as if responding to the residents were the same as
responding to himself. In this communication we intend to analyse through drawings of the project how
the notion of housing for “a middle-class” crossed through the project. This argument is revealed in a plan
of a dwelling with dimensions close to middle-class, which is later reduced to smaller areas, but “keeping”
architectural qualities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
