Building the Modernist rural landscape in the Salazar’s Regime: The agricultural colony of Boalhosa

Abstract

The construction of the modernist rural landscape in Portugal bears the mark of the Junta de Colonização Interna, an institution created in 1936 during the Salazar regime within the Ministry of Agriculture. The colonies which were actually completed and whose original structures remain until today are regarded as singular experiences that, having assumed the assumptions of modernity, have sought to establish continuity with certain aspects of landscape and vernacular architecture. This research aims to test the methodology proposed for the analysis of the physical legacies of these colonies, applying it on the Agricultural Colony of Boalhosa. The methodology combines GIS and mapping analysis, covering several layers of information embarking natural and anthropogenic spatial data, which allow understanding the landscape transformation since the settlement of the colony. From the reading of the landscape structure of this colony, it was verified that these legacies were accomplished through the use of an autonomous design methodology, which considers the local culture and respects both the morphological and physiographic characteristics of the existing site, leading to the creation of modern landscapes strongly tied to the local identities.