A relação homem/espaço no norte de Portugal : os valores de um código, de um lugar e as relações entre lugares, nos primórdios da sedentarização

Abstract

The man in the north of Portugal, with cultural origin in what today is called the Castro culture, his own identity and values. When he settled a territory for the first time, he had to find the possible mechanisms to protect himself and to be able to relate collectively. So, he had to live in balance with the need of interact with others and, at the same time, his need for intimacy. So, on one hand, he provided possibilities for the relationship to happen - in open areas and predominantly public - on the other, he gave these important territorial boundaries that resulted in its isolation to the others - in private areas. To formalize these intentions, the human body has the autonomous entities, consisting of several buildings that formed the Housing Units. Closed in themselves, these organizations, which by their sum constituted the nuclei, were emerging through the rational positioning built an outer space belongs to public pathways, which was understood as an expression and reflection of a less public area and therefore more private. Setting up indoors for no one outside, these areas have not been emancipated, of course and demonstrate an understanding to the perception of structures generated from isolated elements. Carrying strong intentions, this definition of an area with specific values creates segregation, or transitions, compared to public pathways, and was, of course, linked to a speech highly related to organizational concerns the survival of individuality and life in society.

With these attitudes, the human ancestor of northern Portugal, realizing that what today is called the architecture could lead to feelings and act in a decisive manner to his well being, discovered and formalized entities that protected his private space. These transition spaces, distinguished by their own language demonstrate the existence of transition zones between the Public and the Private and the result of desires that no longer seem to have finished to follow the Man. (Fernando Mariz)