Architecture, avenues and opportunities

The Portuguese way with buildings is simple and unpretentious although their use of paint and materials in their building can be interesting. A standard home in Portugal will be built of concrete floats for flooring with breezeblock walls, all rendered with a cement finish that is painted white.


You can have variations on that theme - in terms of colour render for example, with ornamentations on some pieces of moulding, or with a tile finish to some exterior walls that gives a strangely clinical look to the building it covers. Of course, there are grand variants but all based on the same theme.

The constants are concrete, white render and the omnipresent Portuguese cobble or calçada - a piece of hard stone cut roughly to a cube which is laid alongside its neighbour either in simple rows or in ornamental mosaic.

This type of paving is used widely on roads in towns, for pavements and in large paved areas such as town squares or on seaside promenades. Although beautiful to look at it is hard to create and maintain. Accidents are frequent as the glassy cut edge of the stones are slippery when wet - also absolutely lethal for stiletto wearers! Frequently, streets in Portuguese towns have nothing to separate pedestrians and traffic other than different colour paving stones, sometimes augmented by steel posts that frequently get knocked down by passing vehicles - not at all comforting for those on foot.

Interestingly, the Portuguese are keen to make their public spaces attractive and interesting and there is artwork everywhere - much of it where it shouldn't be. Graffiti is rife, unfortunately, defacing the simple white walls of buildings which have given no offence, yet have attracted this defacement that apparently brings glory to its creator.

Murals are frequent - the one shown here is an object lesson in perspective since it is painted on the wall of a building down a narrow alley. Viewed from one end, the woman's head and right foot are disproportionately huge; see it from the other end and all drops into place.

Statuary too is very popular, to the extent that some bizarre works of art are displayed in many towns - Lagos is a great example - where a frankly brutal concrete statue graces the main square. This picture is stolen from someone else's page because I didn't want to take one of it! Yet elsewhere, you'll find beautiful bronzes or modern works, although frequently they have seen better days.

Portugal is a beautiful mix of the ancient and modern. It draws together its native cultures and melds them with those of the modern world, sometimes without a totally sure hand, but always to the benefit of the viewer. And watch out for the development opportunities in its buildings!

(All photos by the grace and favour of Gabrielle Hadley.)