Modern Portuguese

Portugal has been on my personal lists of destinations for a while now. I couple of years ago I read a National Geographic article about these wine lovers who did a walking tour of Portugal. I believe they were there for just about a week, and would walk to a different tiny town each day.  Wake up, have a delicious breakfast with the locals and then embark for 6-8 hour walk to the next town. Roll in, check in and explore. Drink delicious port, eat cheese and mingle with some interesting and perhaps bizarre people whose families have passed ancient arts down to share with you.  Ah, yes. I did not however, imagine that there was an amazing urban side of Portugal, dotted with vibrant and modern architecture. I came across this site, and it totally changed my perception of this country. I'm going to post a few examples, and most likely revisit some of these projects in depth later.  One thing I noticed on some of the multi-family residences was the clever use of shading.  Many of these complexes had the corridors on the exterior of the building open to the air, with wooden slatted shutters in strategic places to help minimize the sun's penetration through glazed areas.  Doors & windows could therefore be left open to capitalize on cross ventilation, while minimizing the suns most intense rays.  This solution is obviously not as appropriate for projects in Calgary, but it made feel good to recognize how and why these projects have taken a critically regional approach to Modern architecture in urban design. PITAGORAS