The Barredo’s urban renewal study – The third way in Portuguese historic cities urban conservation

The Barredo’s urban renewal study established a turning point in the planning philosophy of the historic cities in Portugal. The previous plans for Porto historic core defined extensive demolitions of the urban tissue, mixed with a strategy of historic buildings renewal for touristic activities. These preceding approaches reflect the ongoing debate regarding the urban intervention in the historic environments, which followed two possible ways: the traditionalist, proposing the use of historic architectural elements in order to achieve a resemblance with the buildings of the past; or the modernist, which promoted functionalist strategies to solve the traffic and hygiene problems, resulting on the demolition of the outdated existing buildings. The 1969’s study, coordinated by the Architect Fernando Távora, introduced the social dimension, not only by adding the social sciences into the interdisciplinary working team, but also because the local inhabitants were considered as being so important on defining the character and significance of the place as the historic built environment. Concurrently, the traditional buildings which settle the urban environment are also considered as being so important as the monuments. This vision, which reflect the principles of the 1964’s «Venice Charter», is undoubtedly a consequence of the personal and professional background of Távora, which participated in the 10th CIAM, and in the Portuguese Regional Architecture Survey. As pointed already in 1961 by Nuno Portas, his carrier gave visibility to an alternative way in the Portuguese Architecture, known as the third way, which was advocated by Távora since 1945, and is reflected on this renewal study. The study did not produce direct results on the area. However, the new approach influenced directly the operation of the CRUARB office that applied these ideas in Porto Historic Centre after 1974. Further on, this interdisciplinary office played since the 1980’s a role model for the Portuguese interventions in historical centres, disseminating indirectly the visionary concepts introduced by the 1969 study.