Minimalism in the context of Portuguese architecture

Abstract

The study carried out within this presentation focuses on minimalist Portuguese architecture. The concept of minimal art, comprehensive movement to the different artistic areas, emerged in the twentieth century, more specifically from 1960s. This artistic movement, characterised by the absence of ornaments and focused on the essence of the form, its purity and its simplicity, became to be called minimalism in the late 1960s. The intention to renounce ornamentation and begin to admire the simplicity of the form, manifested itself long before the appearance of the minimalist architecture, namely from the 1920s having as major drivers Adolf Loos, Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. It was only in the early 1970s that the appearance of minimalist architecture was officially considered. This architectural style results from the application of the minimal art principles in the conceptual thinking of spaces. It can be considered that second half of the twentieth century was considerably marked by the presence of minimalist architecture, and it remains to this day. In this way, the main theme of this presentation has as primary purpose to analyse the impact that the minimalist architecture has had and has in the national context, trying to determine if can be considered that exists a Portuguese minimalist architecture. For this, a framework will be made based on the contextualization and historical evolution of the concept of minimalism, followed by a brief study of twentieth century architecture, relating them to the Portuguese architecture of that same century. After the awareness of the minimalist context and its relationship with Portuguese architecture will be made, based on its characteristics, a study of several cases in which minimalism is present in the works of Portuguese architects.