Architectural Exchange and Transatlantic Dialogue: the Case of Post-war Mozambique

Elisa Dainese
Marie Curie post-doctoral fellow , University of Pennsylvania

This work analyzes the history of the contact between Mozambique and the European architectural world in the aftermath of World War II until 1974, year of independence and end of the Portuguese hegemony in the area. The study shares neither the Eurocentric vision that has emphasized the heritage of colonialism in Mozambique?s cities, nor the myth of Portuguese Lusotropicalism, as described by Gilberto Freyre. The work offers a new framework for understanding transnational networks between Mozambique, Portugal, and Brazil: the view of a reciprocal exchange and transfer of knowledge. Portuguese, Brazilian, and Mozambican architectural cultures did not simply meet in the process of creolization. European legacies, Brazilian modernism, and traditional African knowledge informed each other, mixing and emerging as renewed vital forces in developing and shaping post-war city and architecture.

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