RIABILITAZIONE E CAMBIO D’USO DEL PATRIMONIO COSTRUITO. RIFLESSIONI SULL’ESPERIENZA DELLE POUSADAS IN PORTOGALLO.

Addressing the Portuguese context, the paper aims to focus on a singular program of rehabilitation and reuse of buildings - monasteries, castles or palaces - in hotels (Pousadas), promoted by ENATUR in articulation with the heritage safeguarding organizations (DGEMN and IPPAR). Framed by an innovative political project of national tourism, the experience of the Pousadas explores the re-use topic as a strategy for preservation built heritage, sometimes abandoned and in a poor conservation status. In this regard, the paper will examine some interventions realized since the 70s of the XXth century, in a cultural climate determined by the revision of architectural practice which combines contemporary architecture with concepts such as tradition, place and context: the projects of Fernando Távora for the Pousada of Santa Marinha da Costa (1975-1985), in Guimarães, the intervention of Alcino Soutinho for the Pousada of D. Dinis in Vila Nova de Cerveira (1972-1982) and finally, of Eduardo Souto de Moura, the Pousada of Santa Maria do Bouro in Amares (1989-1997). The presented case studies aim to show the heterogeneous nature of each intervention, in an attempt to detect the variety of possible design approaches in reuse and rehabilitation. The critical approach to interventions, linked with the analysis of use and behavior of the structures - old and new – over time, offers, after years, a reflection about the adequacy of management and occupation.