20th-century architectural heritage under threat, president of Portuguese-speaking architects warns

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

20th-century architectural heritage under threat, president of Portuguese-speaking architects warns

1:14 CAT | 25 Apr 2022

File photo: Lusa

The president of the International Council of Portuguese-Speaking Architects (CIALP), Rui Leão, warned on Sunday that the 20th century architectural heritage in Portuguese-speaking countries “is at great risk of disappearing en masse”.

“In Portugal, less so, but in other countries, including Macau, the [architectural] heritage is very poorly protected, because there is insufficient framework, nor continuous study, nor the political will,” the Macau-based architect told Lusa.

“Some excellent [architectural] heritage has already disappeared” in Angola, Leão complained, while in Mozambique and Cape Verde there was a “temptation” to demolish 20th-century buildings “because it is useful in political terms to have two or three more floors”.

Rui Leão also recalled the case of the Gustavo Capanema Palace, “one of the most essential pieces of Brazilian 20th-century heritage”, which was placed on a list of properties to be auctioned by the government itself.

In February, a court in Rio de Janeiro found in favour of the federal public ministry opposing the measure and forbade the government from accepting any proposal “which could lead to unwanted alterations.”

The Council of Ministers of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) will in the first week of May discuss a CIALP proposal to establish a list of notable 20th-century architectural heritage, Leão revealed.

A CIALP working group has been discussing the criteria for each country for two years, he added. Although the list is not binding, if adopted by the CPLP, “it will allow us to work in more depth, with a research team and associated universities already”.

The CIALP president says he hopes that the CPLP Cultural Heritage Commission, created in 2017, can be an “interlocutor” in the protection of Lusophone architectural heritage.

’20th-Century Architectural Heritage’ will be the theme of one of the two round tables that CIALP will co-host in Luanda between 3 and 5 May, within the scope of the third edition of the CPLP Capital of Culture.

The initiative, which will also celebrate World Portuguese Language Day on May 5, takes place in the capital of Angola, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the CPLP.

CIALP has as members the professional architects’ orders of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Goa, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and Timor-Leste.

The non-governmental organisation represents “more than 230,000 architects”, which corresponds to “18% of the world’s architects”, Rui Leão told Lusa in July.

The CIALP, founded in 1991, is a private non-profit association based in Lisbon, and is an institutional partner of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and a consultative observer of the CPLP.

Source: Lusa