ABSTRACT
After a long “voyage” of study through different countries in Europe, each engaged in their own changes in construction cultures during the 19th and 20th centuries, the last chapter of this book focuses on Portugal, the country that also opened this work. This chapter presents findings from the PTBUILDS19_20 research project, which aims to set up a digital knowledge platform dedicated to contemporary Portuguese construction history. A first contextual approach is given, concerning the political and socio-economic conditions of the Estado Novo political regime in relation to the public works industry sector. An analysis of 13 of the most important construction companies during that period follows. More than 350 construction works executed by those companies are discussed, with their typological distribution and location. The relationships of each company with firm founders, engineers and architects, other contractors, materials producers and vendors as well as public institutions are also analysed within the economic cycles in Portugal that marked the period 1933-1974. The structural solutions, machines, equipment and materials used in different infrastructures are described and used to identify different technological periods depending on infrastructure types. The chapter concludes that the study of construction companies in Portugal fills an important historiographical gap to be bridged in the study of the construction industry not only in Portugal but also in other European countries.
