Pedro Gregório: Life and Work, The Balance of Precise Gestures

2021 - Ongoing

This project seeks an approximation to the work of the architect Pedro Gregório Lopes. Pedro Gregório was the first Cape Verdean architect to practice in Cape Verde. His professional career began in 1959 at the Brigada das Obras Públicas in Cape Verde, at the time under the administration of the Overseas Ministry in Portugal. Joining the Brigada marks the beginning of a journey full of challenges and opportunities that consolidated a practice about architecture and the role of the architect in the Cape Verdean context that deserves to be rescued and analyzed.

To this end, the research will start with an introduction to his childhood and youth, years prior to going to Portugal  to study architecture at the University of Porto; a study of Cape Verdean vernacular architecture, which intends to draw possible parallels between his experience in the rural context on the island of São Nicolau and the architecture he came to practice; the analysis of concepts related to the climate in Cape Verde, which will later serve as guidance for the analysis of key works by Pedro Gregório, between 1960 and 1980; and finally, a reflection on the present and future of his legacy.

Cabo Verde
+ Research