Children’s Parks in Lisbon’s urban spaces: a childhood education and assistance programme during the Portuguese dictatorial regime (1933–1974)

This article deals with how a female member of the elite from the period of the Portuguese dictatorial regime (1933–1974) used Lisbon’s gardens to implement a free childhood education and assistance programme for poor children – the Children’s Parks programme. The Children’s Parks were located in some of Lisbon’s most attractive gardens, housed in pavilions that were directly connected to outdoor spaces. These spaces responded to the educational purposes of the programme, based on the importance of leisure and play activities in outdoor spaces and linked to children’s moral, social, and physical development. In considering the living conditions experienced by children within the context of the Portuguese dictatorship, and by highlighting the way in which these were reflected at the level of architecture and the urban space, the paper seeks to contribute towards an understanding of the place of the child in the history of architecture and urbanism. Besides reflecting the social and educational identity of the project, the urban and architectural settings of the programme were crucial for its success. The interpretation of this case provides a basis for reflecting on the historical and current significance of children’s spaces, and for examining a number of social, educational, architectural, and urban questions.