The House in Largo de S. Mamede. A design by the Rebelo de Andrade brothers

Abstract

This study takes part in a broader approach to the work of the Rebelo de Andrade brothers, a very active duo of architects in the first half of the twentieth century, and the architectural and cultural problems of their time. The peculiar house in Largo de S. Mamede, Lisbon, was designed by them to promote an architecture intended to be both “Modern” and “Portuguese”. This specific design was an attempt to reconcile the memory of eighteenthcentury house architecture with the modern ways of living that, in the mid-twentieth century, were in full transformation. The original building from which this house was raised, the new program and its architectural layout, the oblivion to what it was submitted by the architectural critique of the second half of the 20th century,
all intersect in this singular architectural object.