Estremoz’s Castle
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Rua do Arco de Santarém
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Groundfloor
urban domestic space in Alentejo region and its evolution: types, shapes and materials MOURA - Housing types categorization chart
Ana Costa Rosado | U. Sevilla | CEAACP/CAM
GOALS Castelo de Vide
1) Study, document and analyse pre-industrial housing typologies in Alentejo, with the final goal to draw adequate rehabilitation strategies to each typology, to form of intervention criteria and lines of action. ESTREMOZ
2) Inventory of cases, their comparison and consequent typological definition. The research will seek to understand the evolution of each typology and their role in social interaction and civic structure. It purposes to study the influences each typology has received during their process of transformation as this will help to understand their present state and what they can become in the future.
BORBA
MOURA SERPA
The menace of disappearance these buildings face today leads to an urgency in documentation for future memory. Besides, typological study is essential to the preservation of housing models. Deep knowledge of these types and of the transformations they go under is crucial for the development of adequate rehabilitation projects and in the adaptation of these buildings to contemporary living standards.
Zona dos Mármores
Margem esquerda do Guadiana
Mértola
METHODOLOGY Architectural surveys | Photographic surveys | Accounts form residents Historic archive research | Municipal archive research heritage | conservation | Ancien Règime | common housing | types
STUDY CASE SELECTION To obtain results that are transversal to the region of Alentejo, two urban areas will be analysed, one in High Alentejo and one in Low Alentejo - Marble Region and Guadiana’s Left Bank. The cities chosen are Estremoz, Borba, Moura and Serpa. Those four cities, two for each area, vary in foundation period, importance in connecting routes and position regarding the frontier – representing different types of Alentejo’s urban centres. These study cases will be compared to others already investigated to diversify available data. One can find two well documented cases of great relevance in Alentejo’s northern and southern extremes, that serve as supporting cases of this research: Castelo de Vide and Mértola. Complementary case-studies ensure wide geographic distribution. All cities are vertically aligned, with their longitude varying from 7˚27’W to 7˚40’ W, which means they share the same territorial condition regarding distances to the western coastline. Moreover, their latitudinal difference corresponds to the extreme points of the region. It is interesting to maintain the same longitudinal condition for the selected case studies, seeking latitudes representative of other regional subunits.
MARBLE AREA - Housing Types categorization description The results obtained in this research stem from the analysis of data obtained in both field surveys and archival search, conducted in 2017-2018, for housing buildings in Estremoz and Borba. The analysis resulted in the grouping and classification of housing types by category according to the parameters of (1) plot shape, (2) internal layout and (3) stair location, as shown in Table 1. The first criterion, plot shape, divides cases into three categories: A corresponds to the narrow-and-deep plot, B to the wide-and-short plot and C to the square-shaped plot. Category A has disproportionately more cases (and variations in types) than B and C, as the narrow-and-deep plot is used systematically in the planned medieval genesis of both case studies’ urban fabrics, and hence, is more frequent. Within the three categories, cases were divided by their internal space organization, i.e., their layout and the position of walls. Inside A, inner space distribution logic can either be (1) linear, with all rooms following one another in depth; (2) front-back, when plot depth is constrained and the back room splits into two chambers; (3) linear with corridor, a more complex type where rooms are aligned in depth but circulation does not imply the crossing of adjoining rooms and (4) merged, when two or more narrow plots merge together, yet keeping a narrow-and-deep rectangular shape proportion. In group B, plot constraints in depth expansion result in substantially smaller houses. They are divided into (1) single-room houses, (2) houses of two rooms, arranged side-by-side, parallel to the street, and (3) houses of two wide and short rooms, arranged in depth, perpendicular to the street. The type is identified by the combination of number and letters of the categories in which it is inserted. For square-shaped plots (C) we only found examples of four rooms with a central staircase. Hence, all cases in the C category belong to type C1. A total of 8 types were identified, some with variations regarding stair location or shape. Those variations are indicated by a small cap letter. For instance, the common bi-cellular home type is identified as A1. If it has evolved into a two-floor house, with a lateral staircase, it would belong in A1a subgroup.
