José Veloso, the architect who gave a neighborhood to the “Indians” of Meia Praia, has died

José Veloso, the Lacobrigense architect responsible for the Meia Praia neighborhood project, died this Friday, the 19th, at the age of 93.

Born in Lagos on June 9, 1930, José Veloso was one of the architects who worked for the Housing Development Fund, as coordinator of project teams for the Local Ambulatory Support Service (SAAL), between 1974 and 1976.

He was the last of the Algarve modernist architects, along with Manuel Gomes da Costa, Vicente de Castro and Manuel Laginha.

Among the projects he coordinated and designed, the construction of the Meia Praia neighborhood in Lagos stands out, immortalized by Zeca Afonso in his song “Índios da Meia Praia” and by António Cunha Telles in a feature film with the same name.

This work documents the process of popular participation carried out in this fishing community.

José Veloso, who became a CDU candidate for the Assembly of the Republic, for the Algarve circle, participated in another of the approximately two dozen SAAL operations, in the Algarve, which, in the post-25th of April, made it possible to provide a decent home to thousands of the Algarve, including that of the Associação Progresso neighborhood, in Silves.

The legacy left in the Algarve by the state housing construction program created by order after the 25th of April, largely based on self-construction, was recently immortalized in a book.

Another of his emblematic projects is the Abrigo da Montanha inn, in the Monchique mountains.