The Team 10 on Pancho Guedes

An Energy from the New World that has European Roots

Abstract

This article considers the work of the Portuguese architect Pancho Guedes and his relationship with the group of dissident architects Team 10 which he attended occasionally.

Guedes, émigré in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, Africa, joined the Team 10 conversations during the so-called third phase of the movement when the group assumed more the character of family meetings compared to the formal CIAM gatherings. The Team 10 seventies phase re-considered the universal principles of the modern movement by assuming a contextual, local, and regionalist attitude toward architecture and urban projects. Residents’ participation and controversies surrounding urban renewal policies as carried out by modernist masters, were topics of discussion which characterized the Team 10 third phase.

The article examines how Guedes took part in this debate by bringing ‘energy from the new world that has European roots’ quoting Alison Smithson. The dissident attitude of Team 10 against the modernist doctrine resonates with Guedes’ alternative architecture as an exception to the colonial modernist utopia in Mozambique.

The article explores the contents of the meetings between Team 10 members and Guedes; their exchange of ideas and shared concerns.

Following an analysis of these meetings’ records, the article provides a deeper understanding of Team 10, of Guedes, and their relationship with the post-war, socio-political architectural discourse.