This is the question the project Inhabiting Siza, of which the Institute of Contemporary History is one of the proposing institutions, aims to answer. This project was one of five funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the call dedicated to the architecture of Álvaro Siza Vieira.

The aim of the project is to study the reception and appropriation of Siza Vieira’s architecture by the residents of the houses designed by him, namely to understand how they “experience and interact with the spatial layout of their apartments, the house’s micro-technologies, the buildings’ public spaces and social status as tourist attraction”.

The team will analyse three cases with different characteristics and target populations: Bairro da Bouça, in Porto; Malagueira, in Évora; and Terraços de Bragança, in Lisbon. Exploring the concept of “lived architecture” in an interdisciplinary way, the project will follow an ethnographic approach, using interviews, home visits and photography.

The investigation will last for two years and will be coordinated by geographer Eduardo Ascensão (Center for Geographical Studies at the University of Lisbon, CEG-IGOT) and co-coordinated by IHC researcher Paulo Catrica and geographer André Carmo (CICS.NOVA — University of Évora University). Ana Estevens (CEG-IGOT), Ema Pires (IHC — University of Évora) and Ricardo Agarez (CIDEHUS — University of Évora) are also part of the research team.

Image: Bairro da Bouça, Porto (Credit: Wojtek Gurak, CC BY-NC 2.0)