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Custom-built solutions for ageing, urban regeneration, energy efficiency, thermal performance, and well-being are contemporary challenges that have prompted considerable research over the past decades. In the construction field, subjects such as energy efficiency and thermal performance are often addressed within the scope of mandatory regulations, the suitability of construction solutions and the incorporation of technical equipment. Considering four residential structures for older adults under construction in Portugal, this paper aims to highlight the importance of a comprehensive approach to these issues, including architectural quality as the main target. In pursuit of this, a cohesive set of intervention principles guided the analysis: the adaptive reuse of raw materials; taking advantage of the site's conditions; vegetation (type and location); construction options and durability; solar exposure and shading; the pedagogy of building use; and the comfort and thermal perception. Several reflections emerge from the analysis: good architectural design must consider dynamic models incorporating each context and the site's conditions; the culture of use and maintenance and the notion of "adaptive comfort" are primary factors to enhance thermal performance and energy efficiency; and each building is a unique result of a complex negotiation process. Bridging research through practice, and multidisciplinary scientific integration enable engagement with reality and raise awareness of the constraints and challenges to innovation in LTC design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stable access to affordable quality housing is a core feature of public health principles and practices. In this report, we provide an update on the research project "Mapping Public Housing: A Critical Review of the State-subsidised Residential Architecture in Portugal (1910–1974)" (MdH), developed between 2016 and 2019 at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto (FAUP) in Portugal. This funded research project (PTDC/CPC-HAT/1688/2014) brought together an international and multidisciplinary team composed of architects, sociologists, historians, an economist, an anthropologist, information scientists and archivists, from different academic levels (senior researchers, postdoctoral, PhD and Master's degree students), adopting a variety of approaches and operating in a range of different contexts. The aim of the research undertaken was to investigate the reality of social and state-subsidised housing in terms of its architecture, while, at the same time, seeking to broaden our understanding of this phenomenon and of the transition to a democratic regime. Furthermore, this research project was designed to contribute towards the development of common ground for supporting decisions in the environmental, social and economic fields relating to housing management, as well as architectural heritage management and protection. This review is based on the submitted application (2015) and final report (2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mapping Public Housing investigation project (MdH), based at the University of Porto, Faculty of Architecture, Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, is building a database of State-subsidized residential architecture in Portugal designed between 1910 and 1974. An ongoing survey of laws directly or indirectly influencing housing construction, and of their concretization, allows for a reading of the influence of the State in housing architecture. This paper will focus on two scopes of segregation through housing design in the Portuguese 20th century, both in private initiatives—the "Ilhas", low rent housing built in the backyards of Porto in the first half of the century—and in public investments—using the example of the "Affordable Houses", a housing programme created by the Portuguese dictatorial regime in 1933 in which the buyers of the houses were subjected to surveillance by the State. An ongoing context of market pressure caused by speculative real estate investing and mass tourism, suggests an evolution of the original processes of segregation into systems of gentrification, transforming the cultural and social fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]