Conference"Do Alto das Picoas à Casa Prego: viagens do olhar em torno de uma resistência", by Paula André.
- Jul 8
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 19
As part of the exhibition "Vizinhanças: ausências e presenças em torno da Casa-Museu Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves" (Neighborhoods: Absences and presences around the Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum), and to kick off the exhibition's conference series, a lecture will be presented on July 15th at 6:00 PM in the PLMJ auditorium (Av. Fontes Pereira de Melo, nº 43, ground floor).
The conference, titled "Do Alto das Picoas à Casa Prego: viagens do olhar em torno de uma resistência" will be delivered by Paula André (DINÂMIA'CET-Iscte).
The Conference
Starting from the 19th-century expansion of Lisbon, the urban morphology of the Picoas Site, and a "radiographic" gaze that cross-references different sources (maps, projects, photographs, magazines, newspapers, films), the conference seeks to unveil the palimpsests and built environments of the place where the painter José Malhoa's Atelier House was built—the origin of the current Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum, which, through its resistance, is now considered a "Casa Prego" (Nail House). This journey will be supported by the operational concepts of palimpsest (André Corboz), environmental pre-existences (Ernesto Rogers), and the interested use of history (Fernando de Terán), with the goal of showcasing the various layers and lives of certain constructions that are associated with different authorships and architectural expressions, all while understanding the city as a living organism.
The Exhibition
Inaugurating the commemorations of the 120th anniversary of the Valmor Prize being awarded to the José Malhoa Atelier House, the exhibition "Vizinhanças: ausências e presenças em torno da Casa-Museu Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves" seeks to unveil and reveal the breaks and continuities of the surroundings of the José Malhoa Atelier House—the 1905 Valmor Prize winner—and the subsequent Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum. Research in the Lisbon City Council Archives, understood as a place for creating leads and clues, made it possible to connect with the past, pursue the sense of a theory of suspicion, and fill silences. Through an intentional and open search of primary sources (cartography, projects, construction records, photographs, periodicals, etc.) carried out by a collaborative team with a radiographic gaze, narratives are constructed, starting at the Alto das Picoas with forts and estates marked on historical maps, and continuing with the transformations of the urban fabric associated with the late-19th-century "Avenidas Novas Plan" and its built environments.
Starting from the contemporary city and research, the exhibition displays and highlights mutations in urban morphology (roads, streets, avenues, squares, blocks, estates, gardens, walls) and current and vanished buildings (Palaces, Houses, Income Buildings, Slaughterhouse, Market, Hotel, Maternity Hospital, Post Office, Chapel, Church, Cine-Theatre, Shopping Centers, etc.) that, through their absences and presences, constitute the neighborhoods of what is now understood as a nail house: the Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum.
The exhibition is organized into four sections, using different sources and media:
Section 1: The Picoas Site "The Picoas Site: A Radiographic Gaze Unveiling the Palimpsest(s)"
Based on the delimitation of the study area (Avenida Duque d’Ávila, Rua Filipe Folque, Rua de São Sebastião da Pedreira, Rua Viriato, Rua Andrade Corvo, Avenida Duque de Loulé, Rua da Escola de Medicina Veterinária, Avenida dos Defensores de Chaves) and the location of the Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum on current and historical maps, this section seeks to showcase the layers of this site/territory.
It reveals the names of sites and estates and their progressive evolution and urbanization. It also highlights pre-existences in relation to the late 19th-century Ressano Garcia Plan, featuring the Municipal Slaughterhouse (mid-19th century) and the Palace of the Countess of Camaride (17th-18th century). Finally, it highlights the Andaluz Viaduct, an infrastructure associated with Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo, "built in a particularly adverse topographical situation."
Section 2: The City Block "The City Block: The Next-Door Neighbors of the House-Museum"
Starting from the current layout and delimitation of the block where the Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum is located (Avenida Cinco de Outubro, Rua Pinheiro Chagas, Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo, Rua Latino Coelho), this section seeks to reconstruct the seven buildings that comprised the block, built between 1902 and 1908 (one in 1902; one in 1903; two in 1904; one in 1905; one in 1907; and one in 1908). It reveals the vanished buildings and tells the story of their lives and alterations, which constituted an immediate neighborhood, considered the "next-door neighbors," first of the José Malhoa Atelier House and later of the House-Museum.
Section 3: The House-Museum "The House-Museum: The Nail House"
Starting from the contemporary reality of the Dr. Anastácio Gonçalves House-Museum, which is a combination of two buildings by Architect Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior—the José Malhoa Atelier House (1904) and the house of António Pinto da Fonseca Motta (1908)—this section seeks to show the evolution of the House-Museum. The museum has become a nail house resisting the urban dynamics that have taken place in its block, following the demolition of four buildings and the subsequent construction of the FPM 41 project (Barbas Lopes Arquitetos) and the establishment of the Augusto Monjardino Garden (HAHA-arquitectura paisagista).
Section 4: Other Neighborhoods "Other Neighborhoods: The Urban Fabric"
Through journeys of observation around past and current built environments, this section seeks to reveal layouts and constructions corresponding to ways of thinking, designing, demolishing, regenerating, and using the area around the House-Museum, which constitutes its "other neighborhoods." Among the successive layers of time in space, due to urban dynamics, the following stand out: the Palace of the Countess of Camaride, later the Lisbon Normal College, and the subsequent construction of the Monumental Cinema, whose demolition gave way to the current “Monumental” building; the Municipal Slaughterhouse, whose area of implantation would later give way to the original Mercado 31 de Janeiro and is now occupied by the Saldanha Residence; the church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, which was started but not completed, and whose site was later used to build the Dr. Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital; and the Silva Graça Palace, later transformed into the Hotel Aviz, whose demolition would give way to the Sheraton Hotel and the Aviz/Imaviz Building.