Symposium Middle-Class Housing in Perspective

Politecnico di Milano, 22-23 November 2012

The Alfragide Towers

(1968-74)
by Atelier Conceição Silva
A middle-class housing case study in Portugal
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Filipa Fiúza, João Cardim
ISCTE-IUL
(Lisbon University Institute)

filipa.fiuza.arq@gmail.com
caardim@gmail.com

  1 
 INTRODUCTION

This paper intends to uncover one of the most interesting examples of collective
housing of the second half of the 20th century in the Lisbon periphery – the housing
complex known as Alfragide Towers (1968-74, figure 1), designed by Atelier
Conceição Silva. Firstly we will briefly discuss the architectural context of the post-war
period in Portugal, essentially focusing in the effective introduction of modern
architecture in this country, and relating it to the more general panorama – economic,
social and cultural – of Portuguese society between 1940 and the April Revolution of
1974.
Secondly we will describe the office within which the Alfragide Towers were
designed – the biggest architectural firm of its time in Portugal –, through a brief
exposure of its operative structure and its more relevant projects. We will underline the
two key actors of this office at the time of the Alfragide Towers project: Francisco
Conceição Silva (1922-82), founder of the office and one of the most creative and
prolific architects of its generation; and Tomás Taveira (b. 1938), project architect of
the complex.
Lastly we will examine the project itself: its architectural “affiliation; its spatial
organization and qualities, including the interior design; its external image; its urban
integration; the design and building processes; its appropriation over time and its
present condition; the profile of past and current dwellers and their relationship with
the building; among others.
The Alfragide Towers is a multifaceted three-tower complex with a high level of
uniqueness, especially in the Lisbon suburban setting. Named “a British project” by
Taveira, the sources for this work are not, however, completely obvious, and the design
of the towers is, on the whole, quite rich. It surely deserves to be more studied and
better known, both in Portugal and abroad.

THE ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT IN PORTUGAL 1948-74

According to most national historians, 1948 marks the year in which modern
architecture enters definitively in the Portuguese architectural agenda, namely through
two major events. Firstly, the held of the 1st National Congress of Architecture – under
the subjects “The Architecture at the National Level” and “The Portuguese Problem of
Housing” –, in which a significant part of the dissertations – especially of the younger
architects – demands the appropriation of the principles of the Modern Movement,
with special emphasis on the rejection of the historic and traditionalist models
promoted by the Estado Novo and on the renovation of cities via the Athens Charter.
On the other hand, the second phase in the magazine Arquitectura – Arte e
Construção (Architecture – Art and Construction) begins. This review – the main source
for modern architecture in those years in Portugal – publishes national and
international projects of striking modernity, defends the necessary adaptation of the
profession and its relevance in society, and reveals the theoretical and built work of
internationally known architects, such as Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Richard
Neutra, Alvar Aalto and many others. It also publishes the Athens Charter in its entirely,
throughout several issues of 1948. The influence of the CIAM document is present in
the urban interventions of the 1950s – particularly in Lisbon (North Olivais, since 1955)
–, which are characterized by its opposition to the traditional city: tower blocks and/or
slab blocks; perpendicularity and independence in relation to the street; and a
functionalist approach to the apartments.

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 However, the implementation of the architecture and urbanism propagandized
by the Modern Movement in its more orthodox form was short-lived in Portugal, where
the most well informed architects were committed to keep up to date with the
international evolution of modern architecture. The leading figure of this process in
Portugal, at least in the north of the country, is undoubtedly Fernando Távora (1923-
2005), one of the mentors of the Oporto School of Architecture. A silent participant in
the 1948 Congress – probably not entirely identified with the more radical positions of
most of his colleagues –, Távora will follow the revision of the Modern Movement,
attending the last three CIAM – Hoddesdon (1951), Aix-en-Provence (1953) and
Dubrovnik (1956) – and the Team 10 meetings in Otterlo (1959) and Royaumont
(1962). The contact with the new wave of European architects such as Alison and Peter
Smithson, Aldo van Eyck, Giancarlo de Carlo and many others reinforces the
portuguese architect’s idea that the Modern Movement had ultimately failed in the
search for a more humane architecture, emphasizing the functional and constructive
aspects over the psychological and symbolic ones.
Fernando Távora writes in 1963: «the times and dimensions have changed…
Reality is more diverse, richer and more varied. It is not possible, for now, to give
recipes (…) The World appears before our eyes and our spirit as complex, disturbing,
unusual (…) It feels like it is time for research and doubt, for drama and mystery»1.
Távora is also one of the architects who coordinate the survey on vernacular
architecture in Portugal – launched in 1955, published in 1961 –, envisioned by
Francisco Keil do Amaral (1910-75), a Lisbon-based architect committed in updating
the Portuguese architecture through a “third way”, rejecting both the historic models
and the International Style, in behalf of a (not always easy) compromise between
modernity and tradition. The survey was instrumental in legitimizing a kind of modern
architecture characterized by its adaptation the regional particularities of each region.
Besides providing a rich source of visual and conceptual material for reinterpretation,
the survey allowed for an unconstrained approach to the architecture practiced in
“peripheral” countries, that Kenneth Frampton would later label as “critical
regionalism”. As critic and historian Ana Vaz Milheiro puts it, the conceptual
framework of architects such as Álvaro Siza (b. 1933) was, in the 1960s, «progressively
more Finnish, more Italian and more Catalan»2.
A third phase in the above-mentioned magazine Arquitectura reflects these
changes in the practical and theoretical fields of the discipline. The editorial board,
which included Carlos S. Duarte (b. 1926), Pedro Vieira de Almeida (1933-2011) and
Nuno Portas (b. 1934) among the most active members, reveal a world beyond the old
masters of modernism, introducing architects like Josep Antoni Coderch, Carlo Scarpa
and Bruno Zevi. References to the Anglo-Saxon panorama in Portuguese reviews of this
period are few – when compared to majority of articles dedicated to the Mediterranean
countries – and they are essentially related to urbanism. An especially relevant
exception is found in another magazine – Binário –, which publishes in 1958 the Ham
Common Flats (London, 1955-58) of James Stirling and James Gowan.
In the 1960s, the Public Works are still focused in the great urban interventions
to house (part of) the thousands of rural migrants, such as South Olivais (since 1960)
and Chelas (since 1967), both in Lisbon. However, the economic growth and the
touristic “boom” allow the private sector to compete with the State as the main
commissioner. In fact, it will be for private clients that Conceição Silva will design the
majority of his buildings.

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 THE ATELIER CONCEIÇÃO SILVA

Francisco Conceição Silva entered the Lisbon School of Fine Arts in 1940. The
small number of students in the Architecture degree permitted a rewarding contact with
undergraduates of the Painting and Sculpture degrees, and this fact has certain much to
do with the continuing interest of Conceição Silva in the integration of the plastic arts
in the buildings – right from the phase of conception – and in his enduring support of
artists, both through the work in his office and through his presidency (1963-70) of the
National Society of Fine Arts.
In the initial stage of his career – after graduating in 1949 – Conceição Silva
dedicates himself to the design of furniture, numerous shops – of which the most
important is the Rampa (“ramp”) store (Lisbon, 1955) – and some single-family houses.
The latter fall into a moderately modern category, influenced by Le Corbusier through
the “filter” provided by Brazilian modern architecture, greatly advertised on those years
in Portugal3. The most known example of these is the José Ribeiro da Cunha house
(Lisbon, 1952-55), noteworthy for the interventions of Portuguese artists Júlio Pomar (b.
1926) and Sá Nogueira (1921-2002).
It will also be through domestic architecture that Conceição Silva will initiate
the shift to a more “revisionist” approach in the late 1950s, with several vacation
houses mainly composed of Mediterranean and, later on, Nordic references, both in
the Sintra area, northwest of Lisbon. The first ones – such as the Filipe Rodrigues house
in Colares and the architect’s own house in Guincho, both designed in 1958 – are
characterized by the approximation to the Catalan architecture of those years,
especially Coderch’s. The most noteworthy features of these houses are the clear
organization of the plan in three functional areas – living/dining room; kitchen/maid’s
room; bedrooms –; the use of patios and level differences for separation of uses; the
combination of vernacular and modern building techniques and materials; and the use
of the flat roof, in an wholly horizontal composition. One feature does stand out,
especially when compared with later domestic work: the presence of the patio as the
core and generator of the plan.
The second set of houses already reveals some elements more connoted with
the Nordic world. The affinity of the Mediterranean architects with the Scandinavian
countries is notorious from about 1960 onwards, and it is clearly present in the work of
several Portuguese architects, especially Siza. Coderch, too, is known for its great
appreciation of Finnish architecture 4. These links between peripheral countries are
fundamental in Frampton’s formulation of “critical regionalism”. The incursion of
Conceição Silva through this kind of architecture is patent in the Penedo house (proj.
1960) and in the Galos house (1962-64), marked by the use of gable roofs, exposed
timber frames and tall masonry walls. Although still separated in the three functional
zones, the core of theses houses is no longer the patio but the living room, and the plan
is slightly more open. Also, the level differences are no longer a key factor, replaced by
the interplay between the main and the mezzanine floors.
Much of Conceição Silva’s work from the 1960s and 1970s is directly related to
the advent, in Portugal, of mass tourism. We can divide his production in this
programmatic area in three stages, each one corresponding to a different project, as
identified by historian Inês Leite5. The first one – the Hotel do Mar (1960-63, expanded
in 1965) – is related to the early beginnings of the Portuguese touristic phenomenon of
the second half of the 20th century. Located in Sesimbra, a small fishing village just
south of Lisbon, this hotel was carefully sited in the urban network and organically
integrated in a slope between the sea and an old castle. Its section is developed in four
stepped floors, favouring sea views and the relation between indoors and outdoors. It is
important to emphasise that this hotel, as well as the subsequent ones, were up to date

  4 
with the Mediterranean models of the early 1960s, especially the work of the already
cited Coderch – Torre Valentina (Girona, 1959, unbuilt), Hotel de Mar (Majorca, 1962)
– and of Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oiza – Ciudad Blanca (Majorca, 1961-63). In a way,
the Hotel do Mar defined Conceição Silva’s personal style and, because it was such a
commercial success, it unlocked a series of commissions, mainly in the touristic field.
The second stage – the exploration of the untouched territory outside the urban
centres – is related to the Hotel da Balaia complex in the Algarve, comprising a hotel
(1965-67), apartments (1966-69) and villas (1966). This is an important project for
several reasons. Firstly, it marks the association (1965-67) of the architect with partner
Maurício de Vasconcellos (1925-97). Although it was a short experience, it laid the
bases for the business structure Atelier Conceição Silva, which was, until its dissolution
in 1975, the biggest design-build firm in Portugal, enabling the dream of its founder:
the production of the architectural object in its entirely, from design conception to
construction – always pursuing the best spatial and material quality and, in virtually
every building, uniting the architectural project with the interior design and plastic arts
interventions. The office, that came to have 150 collaborators, included architects,
urban planners, landscape architects, painters, sculptors, photographers, graphic and
interior designers, geographers and historians. Other satellite companies in
complementary areas – founded by Conceição Silva or in which the architect had
shares – were related to construction industry, real estate investments and advertising.
This allowed for a complete control of all the aspects involved in designing the human
habitat, from the urban plan to the minimum detail.
The process of the Hotel da Balaia – and, later, that of the Alfragide Towers –
worked in this way. The architect was asked to create a turnkey project, and everything
was designed in the office – from the urban arrangement in a disperse composition to
the hotel’s logo – and the building was delivered in full operability. The Balaia
complex already counted with the active participation of Tomás Taveira, who – along
with other architects in the office, such as José Forjaz (b. 1936) and Manuel Vicente (b.
1934) – was instrumental in a shift in the office’s stylistic tendency: from mainly
Catalan and Nordic architecture to the Anglo-Saxon universe and, especially, to New
Brutalism.
Thus, the hotel building mixes diverse influences. In plan, it combines the
asymmetry and openness of Coderch’s Hotel de Mar with a more orthogonal unit, in a
continuous space reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most complex schemes. Besides
the Mediterranean features already present in previous projects, the highly geometric
detailing and elements such as the stairs and the corner windows recall the work of
Carlo Scarpa – mainly the Olivetti Showroom (1957-58) –, one of the main influences
of Taveira in those years. Also, the full height atrium and corresponding skylight evoke
the monumentality introduced in the modern discourse by Louis Kahn.
It’s in the Balaia apartments that the Brutalist inspiration is more visible, namely
in the “streets in the air” concept that informs the elevated gallery access and in the
raw treatment of materials. The dynamic composition, still informed by Mediterranean
vernacular via its unevenness and the presence of patios, seems close to some of the
De Stijl variations of Rudolph Schindler. The small Balaia villas return to the patio as
core of the plan and separator of uses, in a carefully designed arrangement that will
have its echoes in the apartments of the Alfragide proposal.
The last stage of Conceição Silva’s tourism projects corresponds to the great
development of the Tróia peninsula (in the Alentejo region, from 1970 onwards), the
great city of leisure that never took place, due to disturbances in the turbulent period of
the post-revolution of 1974. Conceived for a resident population of eight thousand
tourists, plus twenty-five thousand visitors on weekends during high season, the urban
plan comprised thirty-one slab block residential buildings and six towers for apartment

  5 
and standard hotels. Support facilities included restaurants, shopping malls, concert
and conference halls, swimming pools, a marina, a hippodrome, museums and
gymnasiums. Of this vast program, only four towers, some blocks and support buildings
were completed. These conjugate various influences, from the already cited New
Brutalism references to the futuristic imagery of the megastructures of Japanese
Metabolism. One of the most interesting features of the hotel towers is the full height
atria – as in the Balaia hotel – which, at 15 floors, it is comparable to the celebrated
atrium-hotels of John Portman, such as the Regency Hyatt Regency Hotel (opened
1967) in Atlanta (USA).
Other projects of these years – all with the participation of Tomás Taveira –
clearly reflect the Brutalist influence. Geoffrey Broadbent, in his book about Taveira’s
work, stresses the influence of «the three great books of 1966: Aldo Rossi’s Architecture
of the City, Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture [and] Reyner
Banham’s (…) The New Brutalism» 6 in Taveira’s early work. In fact, some of the
projects carried out by Taveira within Atelier Conceição Silva – namely the Valentim
de Carvalho Record Plant (1968-70) and the Castil Building (1968-71) – contain
obvious references to some examples presented by Banham in his book, such as
Vittoriano Viganò’s Istituto Marchiondi (Milan, c. 1953-1957) – characterized by its
structural clarity and raw treatment of materials – and Stirling and Gowan’s University
of Leicester Engineering Building (Leicester, 1959-63), a building that – together with
James Stirling later work – will became a constant source of inspiration for Taveira.

THE ALFRAGIDE TOWERS

The understanding of the evolution of Conceição Silva’s work, as well as the

formation and operability of Atelier Conceição Silva and the importance of Tomás
Taveira within it – which we briefly tried to explain in the previous sections – are
essential to the comprehension of the design and building processes, as well as to the
identification of the multiple sources that inform the Alfragide complex. Promoted by
SIURBE – a limited company whose direction board included Conceição Silva –,
designed (1968-70) within ACS and built (1969-74) by AC, the construction company
of the architect, the Alfragide Towers is the perfect example of the capabilities of the
vision of the architect as developer, which Conceição Silva pioneered in Portugal.
The descriptive document of the original project7 shows a strong emphasis in
meeting the needs of the middle-class family, offering various apartment typologies, a
small community centre – including shops, restaurant and bar, game room, pharmacy,
supermarket, kindergarten and swimming pools –, green spaces 8 and parking for
residents and visitors comprising a gas station (figure 2). The aim was to achieve a
relative autonomy of the complex, located at about 10km from the Lisbon centre, but
virtually without any public transportation. The target was clearly the upper middle-
class, given the high price of the flats and the settlement of payment required in just
three years, and also the absolute necessity of owning a car. Consequently, most
residents had well paid professions: doctors, engineers, lawyers, university teachers,
retired military, and also some architects and designers, drawn by the unique quality of
the complex.
This one was built in a time when the Lisbon city centre began to lose
inhabitants to the suburbs, due to the stagnation of the housing market in the
consolidated city, as well as the attraction to a different lifestyle simultaneous near and
far from the capital, made possible by investments in new roads and the increase in
automobile ownership. The advertising agency previously created by Conceição Silva
promoted the complex through a show flat – something unprecedented at the time –

  6 
and the success of the sales in Tower I encouraged the architects to increase the area of
the flats in the remaining two towers.
Conceptually, the design of the towers represent a meeting between various
architectural tendencies that were active in the post-war period – especially British and
Mediterranean – and that had at least one thing in common: the rejection of the
«Machine Aesthetic of the “White Architecture of the thirties” (Stirling’s phrase)»9 and
the search for a more humane architecture that responded to the new European reality.
Also, adapting the New Brutalism ethos to the Portuguese architectural context – the
British movement was in part a reaction to the picturesque “people’s detailing”, a
version of the New Humanism of the Swedish welfare state –, the aesthetic references
of the Alfragide project intend to partly counter the main influence of those years in the
country: Italy’s Neo-Liberty, discernible in many of the social housing in both Olivais
urban interventions, and characteristic of architects such as Nuno Teotónio Pereira (b.
1922), where Taveira worked as a draughtsman.
In this way, the model of the complex as a whole and the organization of each
floor are probably of British influence, and some of its characteristics are in line with
Reyner Banham’s formulation of New Brutalism. According to the British critic, for a
design to be considered Brutalist it had to fulfil three principles: to be memorable as an
image; to have a clearly apprehensible structure (not just the physical but also the
functional structure); and to use the building materials in their natural state.
The Alfragide Towers are not as “clearly apprehensible” as, for instance, the
Smithsons’ Hunstanton Secondary School (Norfolk, 1949-54), nor they use the
materials in such a raw way as, for example, Stirling and Gowan’s Ham Common Flats
(London, 1955-58). But they are, undeniably, “memorable as an image” – as a point of
reference in a landscape without sufficiently relevant buildings –, which is one of the
points it shares, for instance, with Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s Barbican Estate
(London, 1956-83). Other similarities are the desire to create an instant city and the
combination of refined and raw materials in order to captivate the intended clients.
The independent distribution of the apartments (figure 3) in each floor around a
compact access core – that contain three lifts and a garbage duct – is, according to
Taveira, inspired in a London County Council project that we couldn’t identify. It is
reminiscent, however, of the “cluster blocks” of Denys Lasdun, such as the Keeling
House at Bethnal Green (London, 1957-60), which definitely have a clear relationship
between its parts and the desire to create meeting points for the residents, fulfilling the
already cited “streets in the air” concept that the Smithsons managed to implement in
Robin Hood Gardens (London, 1966-74). Also, in some Brutalist designs, the usually
hidden functional elements can take on protagonist roles. In the Alfragide Towers we
can witness a sort of homage to the staircase shaft of the Stirling and Gowan’s already
cited Leicester building, which is clearly reinterpreted in the stairway at Alfragide
(figure 4).
On the other hand, the apartments internal organization, as well as the detailing
and the way the various building materials are applied, are firmly rooted in the
Mediterranean and Nordic characteristics that we have seen in Conceição Silva’s
revisionist houses of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In fact, the flats are composed
almost as if they were semi-detached houses piled on top of one another (figure 5).
They range from two to four bedrooms – some of them have a maid’s room – and there
are a maximum of five apartments per floor, – the higher floors have gradually less flats
–, all of different configurations, including a maisonette. Excluding this one, all the
other apartments are composed by a central and ample living room – sometimes
divided into two functional zones by a level difference of two steps –, from which the
other rooms – bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms and a balcony – radiate, in a Coderchian
manner, which Tomás Taveira had already experienced when designing the Balaia

  7 
villas. The method adopted by the Catalan architect when facing multi-family housing
was the same, «approaching the floor plans as though they were for tried and tested
single-family dwellings, then grouping them on the site»10. This composition reinforces
the dynamism of the building’s façade – also enhanced by the height differentiations –
and allows for natural light and ventilation in virtually every room (figure 6).
One interesting and very unique feature, probably more Nordic than Catalan, is
the virtual absence of corridors. What exist in most apartments are half walls that
delineate the interior space and sometimes incorporate built-in furniture. Also, the
presence, in some flats, of a nook in the living room with clerestory windows,
sometimes at a different level and with a fireplace, refers to a notion of cosiness and
intimacy generally more associated with the Northern Europe, especially with the
English notion of comfort.
All the cited elements create multiple viewpoints, light effects, possible
circulations and leave plenty of room for the residents’ appropriation. Above all else,
what certainly characterizes this project is a desire to create – through an extremely
qualified integrated design – a versatile background for a rich and exciting everyday
life.

THE ALFRAGIDE TOWERS TODAY

Forty years on, the Alfragide Towers complex is still one of the most interesting
urban proposals in the Lisbon periphery, although it has seen better days. When the
towers were built, the great urban expansion of the Lisbon suburbs had not yet
occurred, and they have suffered from the urban disorder that characterizes the region
today. Although the population density has vastly increased, a proper public transport –
namely between these “new towns” and the central city – has not arrived. Many of the
initial intentions for the community centre weren’t fulfilled – only the shops and the
swimming pool became a reality. This one, an initial success, became unpopular when
opened to the general public, and is now permanently closed. Many of the shops
suffered a similar fate, due to the appearance of several large malls nearby.
In many of the apartments, we encountered numerous modifications11, not only
a result of the natural degradation of materials, but also a reflection of both the changes
in taste and lifestyle, and of a clear lack of understanding of some of the architectural
elements present in the flats. The half walls, for instance, were often completed to the
ceiling, and some doors, cabinets or shelves were added to create actual corridors –
thus eliminating daylighting and/or the multiple circulation possibilities. Many residents
opted to close the balconies and, in the beginning of the buildings’ lifetime, the use of
a window frame model for doing this was mandatory. Some of the modifications were
necessary for insulation purposes, though. The floor was carpeted concrete, and it was
replaced in nearly all the flats by wooden flooring. The original wooden window
frames were, as well, replaced, mostly by aluminium ones. Non-used bedrooms –
especially the maid’s – were frequently converted to study, music or storage rooms.
But there are some apartments that are in near-original conditions, and others
that are being restored and furnished to conform to the 1960s and 1970s era. Some of
the older dwellers emphasize the respect for the architectural project and acknowledge
its qualities. Only recently there has been new and young residents moving in, often
attracted by the building’s features – and by the Atelier Conceição Silva “brand” –
and/or because they had lived there during childhood. The fact is that the Alfragide
Towers apartments are completely suited to contemporary needs, which, for a building
its age, is surely remarkable.
 

  8 
  
Figure 1

  9 
Figure 2

Figure 3

  10 
Figure 4

  11 
Figure 5

  12 
Figure 6

  13 
References

BANHAM, R. 1966. The new brutalism: ethic or aesthetic? (col. Documents of Modern
Architecture) New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation.

BARATA, P. M. 2000. Conceição Silva - poética sem retórica. Prototypo 4 (2), pp.38-
69.

BROADBENT, G. 1994. Tomás Taveira (col. Architectural Monographs, n.º 37).

London: Academy Editions.

CORREA, F. 2006. J. A. Coderch a Sarrià-Sant Gervasi: Les Cotxeres. Barcelona: Arquia

Caixa d’Arquitectes.

DURÃO, T. 2010. O escritório de Conceição Silva e o desenho total. Lisboa: ISCTE-

IUL. Master in Architecture thesis.

FIÚZA, F. 2010. Um Projecto Inglês – A influência da arquitectura anglo-saxónica nas

Torres de Alfragide. Lisboa: ISCTE-IUL. Master in Architecture thesis.

FIÚZA, F. 2011. As Torres de Alfragide: Um Projecto Inglês. Jornal dos

Arquitectos 242, pp.4-8.

FRAMPTON, K. 2008 (1997). História crítica da arquitectura moderna. São Paulo:

Martins Fontes.

GILI, M. et al. 2006. José Antonio Coderch Houses. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili.

GOODWIN, P., SMITH, G. E. K. 1943. Brazil Builds. New York: The Museum of
Modern Art.

LEITE, I. 2007. Francisco da Conceição Silva: para uma compreensão da obra e do

grande atelier/empresa – 1946/1975. Lisbon: FCSHUNL. vol. I, 279 f. Master in Art
History thesis.

MILHEIRO, A. 2007. A minha casa é um avião. Lisboa: Relógio D´Água.

SILVA, F. da C. Alguns trabalhos do atelier Conceição Silva. Arquitectura 127/128,

pp.32-43.

SILVA, J. C.; SILVA, F. C. (org.) 1987. Francisco da Conceição Silva arquitecto: 1922-
1982 [catalogue]. Lisboa: SNBA.

TÁVORA, F. 1963. O Encontro de Royamount. Arquitectura 79, p. 1.

  14 
                                                        
1
TÁVORA (1963), p. 1.
2
MILHEIRO (2007), p. 99.
3
Especially through the book Brazil Builds.
4
FRAMPTON, K. in GILI (2006), p. 4.
5
For a more complete study on architect Francisco Conceição Silva, see LEITE (2007).
6
BROADBENT (1994), p 7.
7
The project architect was Tomás Taveira, and the design team included Maria João Eloy, Alfredo
Saldanha and José Silva Pereira (architects); Carmo Valente, Eduardo Afonso Dias, Gilberto Lopes and Ana
Maria Barata (interior design); and António da Rocha Cabral (engineering).
8
With landscape project by Álvaro Ponce Dentinho which integrated a sculpture by artist Fernando
Conduto (b. 1937).
9
BANHAM (1966), p. 86.
10
CORREA (2006), p. 114.
11
For further information on the apartments appropriation by its residents, see DURÃO (2010).

  15