Maria da Conceição Crispim moved to the Bairro Operário de Loulé as a child. She has lived there for 70 years and there are also many who wanted to have work done on her house. The most awaited day arrived yesterday, July 19th: Maria da Conceição's house will be one of the 18 that will undergo renovation and expansion works.
«This was a big need», comments the resident, with a smile on her lips.
The consignment of the works in the Municipal District, which had been signed a few minutes ago between the Loulé Council and Costa e Carreira construction company, was accompanied by Maria da Conceição and other residents.
“Everyone in the neighborhood is happy. The houses are small, the rooms too and we had this need», he adds, to journalists.
In total, 18 houses will be rehabilitated and expanded. For a second phase, there will be another 30.
The investment, in this first part of the work, is around 2,8 million euros. Families, who will have to leave their homes, will be relocated in houses acquired by the Câmara de Loulé both in the city and elsewhere.
Over the years, the households themselves built several additions, as the areas were small, which led to a degradation of the neighborhood, in terms of the organization of spaces, health and urban planning.
In 2000, extensive works were carried out on its infrastructure network.
The architect Luís Pires was responsible for designing the project for this new venture in the Frederico Ulrich Municipal Neighborhood, popularly known as the Workers' Neighborhood of Loulé.
That is a place with history: who conceived it, in the 40s of the XNUMXth century, was the Loulé architect Manuel Laginha, one of the greatest exponents of Modernism in Portugal.
The original layout, guaranteed Luís Pires, will remain «unaltered».
«The exercise I did was to think about what the architect Manuel Laginha would do if this work were asked of him», he confessed to journalists.
«The program they presented us involves thinking about those areas that are currently impractical: they had no comfort or thermal insulation», he illustrated.
Thus, «in addition to the rehabilitation of the building, there will be an expansion», since the rooms «will leave the existing building and will have their own space», according to the architect.
«Everything that exists, in terms of building, will be a collective area. The intimate area of the house, like the bedrooms, will be the extension», he summarized.
For Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, these are works of the greatest «importance».
«This is the oldest and main urban center of a social nature in Loulé. The houses were very degraded and people have to live with dignity », he considered.
This requalification was, moreover, something that the mayor of Loulé had «dreamed of for many years».
«For many years, my family lived here and I can say that I was happy in this neighborhood, during my childhood», he confessed.
With 720 days of work planned, the mayor still hopes to be able to inaugurate the project before the end of his third and final term.
«It may be that I can see the end of the work, on top of the finish line. I would love to, because I know many of these people and I would like to be happy to hand them the keys », he concluded.
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