Consider a time when housing was scarce. The Bairro Duque de Saldanha emerged to combat this very issue. Today, we explore Porto’s oldest municipal housing project.
The Bairro Duque de Saldanha was built in 1937. Porto’s municipality constructed it. Their aim was simple: to solve the city’s chronic housing shortage. The project concluded in 1941. The Câmara Municipal do Porto’s engineering department designed it.
The Bairro Duque de Saldanha consists of two main parts. First, there is an isolated U-shaped building. It sits inside the lot. Second, a building faces the street. This closes the open patio. It creates a block. The street-facing building has a hole. This marks a public crossing into the block.
The complex has load-bearing walls. Builders used reinforced concrete, brick, aluminum, and glass.
After its construction, the Bairro Duque de Saldanha’s collective nature faced scrutiny. The Estado Novo, the New State, had ruralist views. The “passages” opening collective housing to the city, were formally and ideologically questioned. People compared it to Vienna’s Karl Marx-Hof. Karl Ehn, an architect, built the Karl Marx-Hof in the 1920s. So, the Bairro Duque de Saldanha became known as Porto’s “Karl Marx-Hof”.
The Bairro Duque de Saldanha has 118 apartments. Over 200 Porto residents call it home. One of the first tenants still lives here. She is now 96 years old.
The address is Rua Duque de Saldanha, 80-140.
In 2010, Ana Filipe studied the Bairro Duque de Saldanha.
You can reach the Bairro Duque de Saldanha by subway. Take lines A, B, C, E, or F to Campo 24 de Agosto. Several buses also stop nearby. These include STCP lines 207, 300, and 400.
The Domus Social manages the complex. In 2025, Pedro Baganha, visited the neighborhood. He is responsible for housing in Porto’s City Council. He was accompanied by João Aguiar. He is the president of the Bonfim Parish Council.
The Bairro Duque de Saldanha stands as a testament to Porto’s efforts. It addressed housing needs in the 20th century. Its history and architecture offer a glimpse into the city’s past. It shows social concerns and urban planning.