The research project proposes to build an instrument that will allow weaving data and knowledge referring to state subsidized housing in Portugal, in the form of a complex database, and to develop its inherent methodologies.

While this implies a return to primary sources (archive records and documents), it fosters as well a review of already known books and research works (secondary sources) and, in doing so, an integrative approach of distinct document types and various fields' perspectives.

 

We aim at an integrated overview on two combined paths.

On one side, the chronological perspective: by looking at a particular aspect such as regulations, public/private interaction or urban inscription, we can observe the development of the subject at different times. This leads to a broad consideration of the factors that impact on housing architectural design and vice versa. 

 

On the other side, bringing together different settlements allows a systematic reading of their processes connected to social and political context. This approach allows to understand the diversity of the responses to similar problems and to acknowledge the similitude of geographically scattered events or facts.

 

An overall vision of the housing sets triggers a research approach capable of revealing the global intentions, the background strategies and the common solutions that the circumscribed analysis does not seize.