A Landscape of Multiplicities

The Production of Subjectivity in Álvaro Siza’s Malagueira Neighbourhood

Journal article (2018)

Authors

N.J. Amorim Mota Public Building and Housing Design
Research Group
Public Building and Housing Design
Copyright: © 2018 Nelson Mota
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Published Date

2018

Language

English

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Research Group

Public Building and Housing Design

Abstract

This article discusses the design decision-making and the post-occupancy processes of the Malagueira neighbourhood, a housing estate designed by Álvaro Siza in 1977 in the Portuguese city of Évora. In this article, I use an empirical approach supported by an ethnographic research to discuss the production of subjectivity in the Malagueira neighbourhood. In the first section of the article, I examine the extent to which ownership played an important role in the formation of the neighbourhood as a whole of singularities. Then I analyse three social-spatial conditions (patios, walls and streets) in which the design decision-making process of the Malagueira plan triggered a mediation between the ontological figures of the “one” and the “multiple”. In the following section, I
discuss the immanent tension between authority and subjectivity reviewing the project’s reception. In the conclusion, I explore Antonio Negri’s ontological definition of the “multitude” to highlight how the Malagueira neighbourhood illustrates the interdependence between design decisions and processes of subjectivation in the formation of a landscape of “multiplicities”.