The Sequel, Building reuse in Lisbon: the case of Modern Cinema Theatres [1904-1957

Abstract

As a consequence of technical evolution, consumerism and mobility, a number of buildings were abandoned despite their location, function or building condition. A prominent example is the cinema theatre, a Modern programme par excellence that had already lost its raison d’être by the end of the 20th century. This paper concerns a sample of 40 cinemas in Lisbon which were built until the start of regular television broadcasting in 1957. After the essential characterization of the venues, based on recent studies, the reuse of these cinemas is analysed from a purely functional point of view. This essay presents some answers and opens a discussion about the reuse of these buildings. The reuse of buildings is a prominent urban problem, in particular in European cities. Reuse is a common and useful word that names a wide range of situations: conversions, adaptive reuse, and rehabilitation, even occupation (Tostões 2014, Tostões 2015a). The relevance of the study of cinema reuse is due to the innovative contribution for the development of Architecture (Alves 2014). Moreover, cinemas were the background of important cultural and social events and therefore part of our collective memory and urban heritage. In Lisbon, as in many other European capital cities, cinemas became paradigmatic urban places of great social value due to the educative role in particular for the illiterate, as a gathering leisure space in the city and the political role as a propaganda medium. The specificities of Portuguese cinema theatres are related to the dictatorship politics and backwardness: the greatest theatres were built by the end of the 1950s, while in central Europe this happened by the end of the 1930s. Only in the 21st century the first studies concerning cinema architecture in Portugal have been published, but none really investigates what happened after their closure. Visits, classification of the building condition and organization of the information into tables allow to have a panorama of the situation, characterized by a wide number of gutting and disrespectful interventions. After this quantitative analysis, the Cinema Ideal case, as the only to be maintained as a regular cinema, as well as some representative case-studies namely the Monumental, the Capitólio, Eden and Cinearte are highlighted in this paper.