Between what is popular and erudition. Vacation houses in Colares (Sintra- Portugal) 1940-1974: Modern appropriation of a secular ideology

Abstract

This research stems from the wish to better understand a territorial reality and its inherent characteristics, which justifies a high level of constant activity during the past six centuries. The study area, focused on Colares (a major vacation area in the vicinities of Lisbon), is specifically marked -in its landscape, historical development, social evolution and cultural specificities- by conceptual conjectures and the oppositions between city/ countryside, natural/ artificial and otium/ negotium, translated not only in terms of poetical contemplation and idealizations, but also of usufruct and architectonic materialization. Stemming from the considerations of James Ackerman (1 995) about the villa its main features and the inherent time cross-cutting nature of this typological and ideological concept, we aim at revealing and analyzing an (unprecedented) modern architectonic production (1940-1974), corresponding to a dozen vacation and weekend houses, notorious due to their special architectonic interest, the professionals who projected them and their international and local cross-references.