Introduction: industrialization and access to housing
This article analyses the housing solutions used in nineteenth-century Lisbon to deal with rapid demographic growth and urban development. The first section provides a contextual introduction to the industrial revolution and housing issues, focusing on what happened in Europe and, in particular, Lisbon. The second section describes the working-class housing ensembles that were disseminated in Lisbon in the second half of the nineteenth century, namely the pátios and vilas operárias. The third section provides a description of the research conducted and uses spatial modelling procedures to analyse the spatial patterns of pátios and vilas operárias in Lisbon, in order to locate the hot and cold spots of working-class housing. This is followed by a concluding discussion that aims to answer the following research question: what was the spatial matrix of pátios and vilas operárias in Lisbon and what was its significance? The composition and distribution of pátios and vilas operárias can be better understood by spatially qualifying this phenomenon and by questioning the conclusions drawn from previous qualitative and empirical analyses.
The speed of economic development in cities after the industrial revolution both promoted demographic concentration in urban areas and led to the emergence of economies of scale and agglomeration.Footnote 1 The accommodation of the population that moved to the cities during (and after) the industrial revolution constituted one of the major urban challenges of the last two centuries.Footnote 2 This urban trend has continued into the present. The global urban population has overtaken the rural; for the first time in history, people are mainly concentrated in urban areas.Footnote 3
Since the industrial revolution, cities have experienced difficulties in accommodating the rapid influx of people.Footnote 4 Explosive population growth occurred in several large Western cities, although in different periods. Urbanization was faster in northern and central Europe, and slower in southern Europe.Footnote 5 Many people who migrated to urban spaces remained geographically distant from the city’s social, cultural and economic centre. Large groups of newcomers were diverted to impoverished areas, generating multidimensional phenomena including urban poverty, social segregation, exclusion, marginalization and stigmatization.Footnote 6 The working classes were concentrated in socially and economically depressed downtowns or, more often, in the new suburban industrial areas.
There are similarities between Portuguese cities and other large cities in southern Europe and on the Mediterranean coastline. As previously noted, urbanization and industrialization did not occur at a consistent pace across Europe, and a group of peripheral countries (Portugal, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Finland and Russia) were less developed before World War I.Footnote 7 This does not mean, however, that urban industrial development had not reached these countries but that the process was slower and less intense than in other European states.Footnote 8
Portugal came late to the industrial revolution. Reasons for the delay include the French invasions (1807–13), the Liberal Revolution (1820), the beginning of the Constitutional Monarchy (1822), the independence of Brazil (1822) and the Portuguese Civil War (1832–34). Despite this political instability, in the second half of the nineteenth-century some large cities such as Lisbon and Oporto experienced an intense demographic and urban transformation, partly powered by slow but positive industrial development.Footnote 9 Technological diffusion and new production methods introduced in the late nineteenth century led to regional differences in Portugal’s industrialization. Lisbon occupied a prominent place in this industrial development because it was the largest urban agglomerationFootnote 10 and, together with Oporto and Covilhã, was one of the few industrial concentrations in the country.Footnote 11 Industrialization in Lisbon caused a significant population increase; the population grew from 163,763 inhabitants in 1864 to 187,404 in 1878 and 356,000 in 1900.Footnote 12 In two decades, the city’s population increased by more than 50 per cent.Footnote 13
The industrial development of Lisbon resulted in structural transformation, especially an increase in the urban and working-class population and in the rate of urbanization. This was the first time in the modern history of Portugal’s capital that the growth of the population caused irregularities in the city’s physical space.Footnote 14 Similar developments occurred throughout the country; the urban population increased rapidly in the second half of the nineteenth century, from 492,131 in 1864 to 859,753 in 1900, and to more than 1.1 million 11 years later.Footnote 15
Lisbon’s industrial growth had many consequences during the second half of the nineteenth century, including the influx of labourers from rural areas. According to Teixeira,Footnote 16 in 1890 almost a third of the population of Lisbon was composed of people from rural areas who had emigrated to work in the industrial sector. The households arriving in Lisbon required houses or shelters to live in. Industrialization in the second half of the nineteenth century significantly increased the demand for affordable housing in the major Portuguese city. The city was not prepared for such a challenge, and its deficiencies were reflected in the living conditions of its new residents.Footnote 17
During this period, several urban changes occurred in Lisbon. The ‘bourgeois city’ flourished, driven by the rise of the middle classes (mimicking the French urban model), while in contrast, the city grew without planned intervention in areas where thousands of unskilled and poor workers lived.Footnote 18 Newcomers to Lisbon experienced serious difficulties accessing decent housing and often lived in the small housing ensembles that constitute the subject of this article, the pátios and the vilas operárias.
Pátios and vilas operárias – industrial housing in Lisbon
During the second half of the nineteenth century, the precariousness of the housing situation in Lisbon met with the condescension of public authorities, largely because they recognized their own inability to deal with the housing crises.Footnote 19 In this period, the public administration believed that free market forces would eventually satisfy the housing needs of the population and that the real estate market should function and evolve freely.Footnote 20
At the beginning of Lisbon’s demographic growth in the second half of the nineteenth century, the first reaction to the housing crisis involved the over-occupation of old buildings. Real estate entrepreneurs took the opportunity to increase the number of floors in pre-existing buildings and adapt cellars, mansards, old conventsFootnote 21 and unoccupied palaces (dividing them into small dwellings).Footnote 22 Given the lack of response from public authorities, newcomers were forced to live in extremely poor conditions, in precarious and overcrowded housing and shelters.Footnote 23 The response to the initial demographic growth was the occupation of pre-existing buildings in the city. The effect of the deregulated market and the shortage of housing led to a situation in which almost all spaces served as lodgings, as long as the resident was under a roof and the rent was paid to the landlord.
The city that grew ‘inwards’: the pátios
After the initial period of overcrowding, real estate entrepreneurs realized that they could not only profit from renting out small cubicles, but could also use the surrounding space, especially the backyards. Consequently, the pátios Footnote 24 emerged as a phase in the densification of the urban fabric, with the occupation of the vacant backyards of pre-existing buildings.Footnote 25
Entrepreneurs with limited investment capacity started to build pátios, mainly because these small housing ensembles constituted a safe and profitable investment.Footnote 26 Pátios were built in vacant backyards and were accessed by a small private street, that in most cases crossed the interior of the original building (through an interior small, dark corridor-tunnel), from the façade to the backyard. This courtyard was located in the backyard of the buildings, and the houses were built facing a free common space, creating a simple urban form around a small square or street corridor. Some of these courtyards were remarkably large, but most of them were built in narrow and shaded areas.Footnote 27 Therefore, the pátios were a semi-spontaneous urban form that occupied the surplus of the consolidated urban fabric. Absence of planning meant that pátios became a common form through which land occupation was maximized, thus functioning as a fallback solution that bent to the characteristics of the available space.Footnote 28 Pátios relied on the densification of urban space, which led to significant overpopulation.Footnote 29
Pátios were small, informal and insanitary, and the well-being of their inhabitants was not the main concern of builders. As was normal during this period, the houses had no connection to the water or sanitation networks. The dwellings were precarious (almost invariably at ground level and surrounded by larger buildings) and riddled with structural problems that compromised the most elementary housing conditions. As a result, the fragile sanitary conditions of pátios could easily expose the residents to hazardous pathogens and simultaneously endangered the whole city, creating a clear link between housing and poor health.Footnote 30
According to Teixeira,Footnote 31 at the end of the nineteenth century pátios became the dominant form of housing in Lisbon. Because of the poor housing conditions at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Portuguese government and the municipality of Lisbon funded an investigation titled Inquérito aos pateos de Lisboa (Survey of Lisbon Courtyards), that studied 233 pátios, identifying 2,278 dwellings and 10,487 inhabitants.Footnote 32 This study was important in underlining the deficiencies of the pátios, describing their horrible conditions in an impressionistic style and proposing the demolition of many of them. It should be noted that these concerns of the Portuguese public administration arose after an outbreak of bubonic plague had already occurred in the city of Oporto in 1899 that affected many ilhas,Footnote 33 which were urban forms similar in many ways to the pátios, albeit with some differences.Footnote 34
Lisbon’s evolution of industrial housing: vilas operárias
In 1881, an industrial survey was performed by public authorities, which provided a general criticism of the workers’ lodging conditions. Subsequently, the pátio declined in popularity and was slowly replaced by the vila operária. Footnote 35 An important factor in this change was the political and media interest in housing conditions. By the end of the century, housing had become an urgent political issue and the occurrence of several epidemics forced public bodies to openly recognize the existence of severe housing problems. From the mid-1880s, attention was focused on poor sanitary conditions and corrective measures began being implemented by the municipalities.Footnote 36
The vilas operárias Footnote 37 were housing ensembles built on undervalued land with modest materials. The absence of regulations and supervision fostered the construction of one- or two-storey buildings that were repetitive, monotonous and, if necessary, easy to expand. These constructions obeyed the logic of building houses with the lowest investment, using the adjacent grounds of main buildings and improving dwellings that combined the rustic and urban aesthetic styles.Footnote 38
Lisbon’s vilas operárias were destined for low-cost rental by low-income families. Their construction was inexpensive and simple, based on a modular structure that allowed for high density and easy expansion using cheap materials. These housing ensembles provided better living conditions and a more modern urban environment than the pátios. Footnote 39 Nevertheless, despite the improvement of housing conditions (when compared with those provided by the pátios), the vilas operárias generally remained a substandard form of accommodation.Footnote 40 In Portugal, vilas operárias were virtually exclusive to the capital, since in other cities the workers did not have enough income to warrant the construction of these habitational complexes.Footnote 41
At the end of the nineteenth century, some industrialists took upon themselves the construction of vilas operárias, thus ensuring their workers would be lodged close to their workplaces. There were also vilas operárias built by philanthropists which contradicted the traditional concept by including buildings destined for collective use (such as in the areas of health, education and commerce). However, the construction of these industrial housing ensembles was not due exclusively to philanthropy but also to the fact that they established the workers in the proximity of the factories (thereby enabling their supervision) and that part of the workers’ salaries could be reclaimed in rent. However, as noted by Antunes,Footnote 42 the number of vilas operárias built by industrialists or philanthropists was very low in the case of Lisbon.
As for the general decoration and embellishment, the style of the buildings’ façades varied according to the origin and the resources of the owners. Consequently, some vilas operárias lacked decoration (exhibiting a functionalist style), while others displayed ornamental elements made of plaster, brick, Portuguese tile or cast iron, among other better-quality materials. Accordingly, there were vilas operárias reserved for the bourgeoisie (or petite bourgeoisie) that were better designed, frequently exhibiting a singular decorative richness. However, the number of decoratively constructed vilas operárias is almost insignificant, compared with the overwhelming majority influenced by the functionalist and rationalist models, as pátios were.Footnote 43
Unlike pátios, which were classic urban forms that had already existed before the industrial revolution and spread rapidly at a time of demographic and urban pressure, the vilas operárias were housing complexes directly connected to the industrial period. In both cases, it is possible to identify similarities with other types of workers’ housing that were built in contemporaneous European industrial cities, in their various and ambiguous urban forms.Footnote 44 However, although the housing complexes for the working class around the world share several similarities, there are also important differences, not only between different countries but also between relatively close cities. For instance, in the two main urban and industrial centres in Portugal, significantly different housing complexes were built: the ilhas in Oporto and the pátios and vilas operárias in Lisbon. For this reason, it is not easy to identify similarities between what occurred in Lisbon versus developments in other European cities, and such a generalization would lead to misconceptions. That is why it is vital to highlight the complexity, diversity and uniqueness of the heritage of industrial housing in each place.
Pátios and vilas operárias – spatial patterns
Recent studies in the field of urban history have applied spatial analysis methods to the study of urban phenomena from the past. The importance of spatial analysis in urban history is highlighted by Rodger and Rau as a new opportunity and a new challenge in this scientific field.Footnote 45 Following their method, the remainder of this article is based on the premise of deploying new techniques of spatial analysis and using mapping tools to explore density, frequency and proximity, specifically the spatial patterns of pátios and vilas operárias in the city of Lisbon, at the end of the nineteenth century. This spatial-quantitative approach allows for new interpretations of these urban phenomena and the reinterpretation of the understanding of spatial patterns based on qualitative studies.
As stated previously, the main goal of this study is to analyse the spatial distribution of pátios and vilas operárias to identify the spatial patterns of these housing ensembles in Lisbon. To do so, we used the capabilities and methods related to spatial modelling and spatial analysis procedures within Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These included simple spatial distribution (Figures 1 and 3), spatial density (kernel density estimation) (Figures 2 and 4), mean centre (Figure 5), standard distance and directional distance (Figure 6). The use of these spatial analysis procedures makes it possible to achieve more precise and rigorous results, obtained by methods of spatial-quantitative analysis, instead of studies based solely on empirical knowledge.
Figure 1. Spatial distribution of pátios.
Figure 2. Spatial density of pátios and hotspot identification.
With regard to the spatial-quantitative analysis (presented in the following section), during this project data were collected on pátios and vilas operárias that existed in nineteenth-century Lisbon. Accordingly, it was possible to identify and geo-reference 696 pátios and 402 vilas operárias, totalling 1,098. In this way, it is possible to indicate that at the end of the nineteenth century the city of Lisbon provided around 1,100 working-class housing ensembles. The collection and processing of this data is presented in the steps indicated in Table 1.Footnote 46
Table 1. Steps involved in the spatial-quantitative analysis
Industrial housing: finding spatial patterns
In our attempt to understand the spatial distribution of pátios that were built in the second half of the nineteenth century in the city of Lisbon, we identified and analysed 696 pátios (Figures 1 and 2).
According to Figures 1 and 2, the most noteworthy results of the spatial analysis of the pátios hotspotsFootnote 47 include, first, in the zone bounded by the Cerca Fernandina wallFootnote 48 in the historical districts of Alfama and Mouraria, a relatively consolidated area in the late nineteenth century, pátios emerged as urban surplus. Secondly, we see a concentration of pátios in the north-west border of Lisbon municipality (in 1852), a zone that experienced significant urban expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century. Additionally, in the east of Lisbon there was an important concentration of pátios associated with the various industries in the area; while in the west of the city there were several pátios on both slopes of the Alcântara valley, again in a significant industrial location. It is interesting to note that the two largest concentrations of pátios were within the city limits, whilst the two concentrations with the least relevance were located in the more intensely industrialized areas. This demonstrates, as will be discussed in the final section, how pátios were a housing product that emerged as urban surplus in the already consolidated urban fabric.
To analyse the location of vilas operárias, we geo-referenced 402 such housing ensembles (Figures 3 and 4). The noteworthy spatial results of the analysis are as follows: first, the most important concentration of vilas operárias was located along the 1852 western border of the city, in the Alcântara valley, the most significant industrial area at that time. Secondly, near the historical centre, it is possible to identify an axis of vilas operárias north of Lisbon castle and expanding further north to the new residential areas of Lisbon. In addition, in the eastern sections of the old city limits, there was an important concentration of vilas operárias, which were related to existing industries; whilst in the west of the city, several vilas operárias stretched to the riverfront, in industrial housing complexes related to the large industries that proliferated in this part of the city during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Figure 3. Spatial distribution of vilas operárias.
Figure 4. Spatial density of vilas operárias and hotspot identification.
The total number of vilas operárias (402) is significantly lower than that of pátios (696), as shown in fewer significant concentrations in Figure 4. The vilas operárias hotspots are geographically correlated with the most significant industrial areas of Lisbon, revealing a connection between this kind of housing and industrial employment. Figures 5 and 6 contribute to the understanding of the spatial distribution of pátios and vilas operárias, allowing the comparative analysis of these two housing phenomena. The analysis of the mean centreFootnote 49 (Figure 5) shows that pátios’ spatial distribution was more central than that of the vilas operárias. But apart from this minor north–south discrepancy, both phenomena were centralized in the city of Lisbon, with no significant difference in the east–west axis, and with the mean centre diverging by only 550 metres.
Figure 5. Pátios and vilas operárias mean centre.
Figure 6. Pátios and vilas operárias standard distance and directional distance.
The standard distance analysis (Figure 6) reveals a geographical divergence in the concentration of pátios and vilas operárias. Footnote 50 Whilst pátios were more likely to appear in the historic urban central area, the appearance of the vilas operárias extended into the northernmost areas of the city and to areas that were more recently urbanized. Finally, the directional distance analysisFootnote 51 confirms that pátios were found mainly in the part of the city that expanded in the late nineteenth century, within the limits of the 1852 border and, simultaneously, on the south-west/east-north-east axis, near the riverside. As for the vilas operárias, the configuration follows the south-west/north-north-east axis. Nevertheless, as shown in Figure 6, these differences are not geographically significant and only demonstrate subtle divergences.
Discussion
Industrial growth in the second half of the nineteenth century led to high levels of demographic and urban development in Lisbon. Consequently, the city was confronted with many problems common to other large European cities, such as explosive demographic and urban growth, increases in population density and the rate of urbanization and overcrowding of the existing urban space. In addition, Lisbon experienced expansion into the rural outskirts, real estate speculation, apathy among public authorities, the proliferation of precarious housing, the expansion of neighbourhoods deprived of proper hygiene and health conditions and the growth of urban poverty, begging and urban epidemics.
Although the pátios and vilas operárias constitute an important industrial heritage for the city of Lisbon, they have not garnered significant attention in historical research. Much of the research on this subject has been published in local history journals, preventing the international dissemination of knowledge about these important housing ensembles in the Portuguese capital. Moreover, in the last few decades, the scientific research conducted into this industrial housing heritage was largely founded on qualitative analysis and included spatial analyses that were based on empirical knowledge.Footnote 52 The present study offers a new mode of analysis, rigorously identifying 1,098 pátios and vilas operárias and utilizing new research techniques and methodologies, particularly by spatially quantifying the distribution of these kinds of housing ensembles. By transforming existing qualitative information into quantitative results, a better understanding of the spatial matrix of pátios and vilas operárias emerges. This methodology may be used to study other cities and territories, both in Portugal and the rest of the world.
At this point, it is important to return to the main research question: what was the spatial matrix of pátios and vilas operárias in Lisbon and what is its significance? Based on the spatial analysis performed on 696 pátios and 402 vilas operárias, several comparative results become evident. First, although the total number of pátios was greater than that of vilas operárias, the latter carried a heavier demographic burden as they were generally larger housing complexes than pátios. Second, according to the results from the density maps, the pátios have higher concentration values near the downtown area, revealing clear connections with the economic activities in the centre of the city. In contrast, the vilas operárias were heavily disseminated throughout the expansion areas, with most of them connected to heavy industrial growth. Third, the location of pátios and vilas operárias do not fully converge; instead, the spatial distribution of these housing ensembles shows asymmetries. The subtle geographical differences between the hotspots may suggest a greater social heterogeneity of the resident population than has been commonly assumed, which is particularly important for differentiating the residents based on distinct economic activities and income. Finally, the results suggest that the pátios and vilas operárias may have been mainly inhabited by craftspeople rather than by factory workers, as was the case with the corralas Footnote 53 in Madrid. To shed more light on this, future research should include the correlation of the exact location of pátios and vilas operárias with the precise location of factories, workshops and other places of work in Lisbon at the end of the nineteenth century.
Conclusion
In the transition between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the first major housing crisis was resolved by private developers, namely industrialists and real estate entrepreneurs who implemented solutions based on the internal colonization of blocks of buildings, without being motivated by any major social concerns. It was only towards the end of the nineteenth century that citizens demanded policies and public measures to promote social housing, claiming that it was the state’s responsibility to solve this problem. However, the first national housing policy would only emerge in 1918.Footnote 54
The pátios and vilas operárias were individual workers’ housing, drawing on the heritage of housing associated with the poor and excluded working-class population that lived in the city during the transition between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The pátios and vilas operárias were eventually dispersed into the twentieth-century urban landscape, mainly because they occupied the grounds adjacent to existing buildings, thus being in non-visible space. With concealed passages and entries, these housing ensembles are often invisible from the public street and have blended in with other elements of the city. Even today, several pátios and vilas operárias are inhabited, almost always by low-income populations.
Pátios and vilas operárias were extremely valuable as urban structures around the turn of the twentieth century. Their value and importance should be recognized to allow a better understanding of Lisbon’s urban fabric. Workers’ housing in Lisbon constitutes a testimony of the city’s history and the urban planning of the past, specifically of the industrial growth of the nineteenth century and of its social and urban externalities.
