Portugal

Coinciding with the economic crisis, the last ten years have seen a movement away from public construction projects, with the predominant neoliberalism of Western Europe viewing them as unnecessarily wasteful, misguided and even harmful. Such projects came to be associated with the origins of the crisis itself, which were actually rooted in the financial speculation that these same neoliberal policies had unleashed. The construction of public infrastructure such as cultural, educational and sporting facilities is in line with the idea of civilisational evolution and progressive social equity. It simultaneously rebuilds and rehabilitates the form of the city, and qualitatively and culturally renews public space. This selection of twelve works constructed over the last ten years offers a short history of the most recent public buildings of Portuguese origin. Each of these buildings reflects the ideas behind FREESPACE, the central theme of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition.