Africanicity and colonial architecture: The response of the Colonial Planning Office (1944-1974)

Abstract

Portugal’s colonial policies during the Estado Novo regime from the Second World War onwards began to incentivise emigration to the Portuguese African territories. The resulting concentration of new arrivals from Portugal made the housing shortages in the colonies more visible. The responses by the regime up to 1974, the year of the revolution that put an end to the dictatorship, were to evolve in accordance with international policies (which tended towards advocating the formation of new countries) and the architectural culture of the period (which was to become increasingly permeable to local cultures).