Modern Movement Migrations: Architecture in Angola and Mozambique (1948-1975)

The migration and dissemination of architectural models, which may be recognized all along the History of Architecture, accelerated throughout the 20th century, particularly after the Second World War. If on the one hand the geopolitical map as then defined led to a new paradigm of globalization, on the other hand the doctrinal, and often dogmatic, consistency of the architectural thought and production right from the origins of the Modern Movement allowed for the construction of models that facilitated their spreading and acceptance. The concept of flow or exchange associated with the mobility of architects between regions and cultures or with the dissemination of ideas and works is one of the main features of the Modern Movement. It is also under the sign of the idea of flow and exchange that we may understand the architectural production in Angola and Mozambique, both former Portuguese colonies, during the period of the second post-war until their independences in 1975. This paper’s intention is, on the one hand, to understand the mechanisms of dissemination of international architectural models and their acceptance in those African countries from a historical point of view, and on the other hand, to analyse the processes of their interpretation in a more orthodox, hybrid or critical meaning. Africa meant for the architects who built there an ideal laboratory for experimenting the modern language, not only by adopting such formal vocabulary, but also by testing building and geography and tropical climate adaptation. At the same time, it is necessary to consider how such idea of modernity and progress was developed within the framework of a colonial society and led to an ideological paradox: how was the assertion of democracy that is present in the genesis of the Modern Movement reconciled with the colonial ideology?