Upon moving to the Portuguese capital I started exploring well beyond the famous favBades and found the omnipresent structures from the Salazar era - the Estado Novo (and the many optimistic examples of functionalism/modernism) fascinating.

These vast and stark buildings are now exhibiting many unintended contradictions and contrasts. Architects of the day were tasked with creating a modernist urban utopian future - a model nirvana that conformed with dictates - many of which were heavily influenced by Corbusier's enormously influential 'Unité d'Habitation' - a revolutionary vision for new form of urban communal living where all inhabitants would come together in a light and green vertical city.

Decades later, the vast majority of these apartment buildings remain, but unhindered freedoms and expressions of individuality have created an unintended piece of public art layered upon these clean, pure modemist buildings. The residents have now created their own ideal environment, creating a highly individualistic aesthetic with various extensions; with replaced glazing, colours etc ... many of which have become a counter-balance with the original vision.

I find this juxtaposition a fascinating reversal of the architects original intentions of a clean, controlled and restrained urban modernity - which has since developed into an 'architectural anarchy'. This has created in many cases a wild, vibrant and monolithic abstract piece - a visual story and a window into lives lived, tastes and desires encapsulated into an unintended very public art installation.