The unfinished business of regionalism and tradition in Portuguese modern architecture

Abstract

To turn the witchcraft against the wizard, which is much more useful than creating one’s own witchcrafts.” This was how Victor Palla, a Lisbon-based architect, described in 1949 his (post-war) generation’s strategy to address concerns with built environment traditions in conservative, dictatorship-led Portugal: tradition’s strength should be acknowledged, and competent designers would “derive from it a means of defence for modern architecture”. Such was the actual importance of tradition.