Art Deco Lisbon and After: Apartment Buildings of 1930 to 1960
Built to be let. Kept to be lived in.
Between 1930 and 1960, much of Lisbon was built by investors. A family or a company bought a plot on a new avenue, commissioned an architect and put up a prédio de rendimento, a building of flats to let, often with shops at street level. Art Deco Lisbon, the Português Suave of the 1940s and the first modern blocks all took this form. Many of these buildings have since been divided into individually owned apartments, and they are among the most sought-after homes in the city. This guide explains how they came about, how they are built, and what to check before buying one.
The new avenues
The stage was set before 1900. Frederico Ressano Garcia, who worked for the city from 1874 to 1909, widened the Avenida da Liberdade and laid out the Avenidas Novas to the north, along an axis then called the Avenida das Picoas, today the Avenida da República. The grid filled plot by plot over the following decades, much of it with rental buildings.
Lisbon also had a way of rewarding a good façade. The Prémio Valmor, created at the wish of the second Viscount of Valmor and first awarded in 1902, was shared between the architect and the owner of the building. An investor therefore had a reason to want architecture, and not only rent.
Art Deco on the avenues
Art Deco reached Lisbon with architects who had seen Paris. Porfírio Pardal Monteiro encountered it there in 1925, and his church of Nossa Senhora de Fátima, in the Avenidas Novas, won the Valmor in 1938. Cassiano Branco worked mostly for private investors, on rental housing, cinemas and hotels along the city's avenues, in an expressive style that sat uneasily with the regime. His former Hotel Vitória, on the Avenida da Liberdade, shows the vocabulary in a single façade: rounded corner balconies, a concave top floor, a pergola on the roof.
Português Suave
In the 1940s the mood changed. The Estado Novo preferred an architecture that looked national, drawing on the baroque of King João V and on the Pombaline city. Architects later gave it an ironic name, Português Suave, soft Portuguese. When the city sold plots on the Avenida António Augusto de Aguiar, it advised architects to look to models such as the eighteenth-century Palácio Ludovice. For houses, the reference was Raul Lino, who had argued for a casa portuguesa since 1918: we wrote about him in Raul Lino and the Portuguese house.
The same architect could work in both registers. Luís Cristino da Silva designed the Capitólio, completed in 1931, an early landmark of modernism in reinforced concrete. From 1938 he designed the Praça do Areeiro, a monumental square in the regime's manner that took until 1960 to complete.
One architect, two Lisbons.
Alvalade and the modern blocks
North of the avenues, Alvalade was planned by Faria da Costa within the city's general plan of 1938 and built cell by cell over some twenty-five years. A law of 7 May 1945 created the casa de renda económica, controlled-rent housing for the urban middle class, in buildings of up to about four storeys. On the Avenida de Roma, sculpted pediments over the entrances signalled the category of each building.
By the end of the 1940s the language was modern. The Bairro das Estacas, completed in 1953 by Ruy d'Athouguia and Formosinho Sanchez, with gardens by Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, won the Prémio Valmor and is now in the process of classification. On the Avenida Infante Santo, a project of 1954 by Alberto Pessoa, Hernâni Gandra and João Abel Manta set five blocks on pilotis perpendicular to the avenue, with tile panels by Maria Keil and other artists: see our guide to Portuguese tiles.
How they are built
Many of these buildings belong to what engineers call the placa type, common between about 1930 and 1960: load-bearing masonry walls carrying reinforced concrete floor slabs. It is a mixed system, between the older buildings with timber floors and the full concrete frames that came later. The National Laboratory for Civil Engineering has studied a group of them in Alvalade.
The materials of a good example are easy to recognise. A study of one Alvalade apartment in the Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal describes lioz limestone of first quality around the openings, wrought-iron balcony railings with a wooden handrail, herringbone wood floors and a maid's room with its own bathroom. Its rear balcony was enclosed in the 1960s as a marquise, in iron and glass. For lioz in a contemporary setting, read our story of an apartment near Campo Pequeno.
Before you buy
Start with the structure. In a placa building, interior walls may be load-bearing, so opening up a kitchen or joining two rooms needs a structural engineer, not only an architect. The slabs, some now ninety years old, deserve inspection, especially in kitchens, bathrooms and balconies.
Then the papers. The use licence has not had to be shown at the deed since 2024, but since 1 October 2026 the deed must state whether the building's urban title exists, is presented or is missing. The buyer should ask before signing the promissory contract, and banks may still request the licence. Lisbon had its own building regulations long before the national code of 1951, so buildings of these decades usually have a municipal file: the processo de obra, in the Arquivo Municipal, shows what was approved, including any marquise. See our guides to the use licence and buildings before 1951 and to the CPCV.
Finally, the setting. In a classified ensemble, or one in the process of classification such as the Bairro das Estacas, works are subject to heritage rules. For a full renovation, read our guide to restoring an old house.
Why they are wanted
These buildings were made to earn a rent, and the economy shows as good sense: rooms of generous size on a clear plan, solid materials meant to last, shops downstairs, the tram and later the Metro at the door. They stand on the avenues that became the centre of the modern city. For many buyers they are the middle way between the old city and new construction.
Wiseguys Properties currently offers The Quiet Blue, a top-floor apartment to let in a 1935 building in the Avenidas Novas, and Villa Bontempo, a house in Alvalade, for sale. If you own an apartment in one of these buildings and are thinking of selling, talk to WGP Advisors. For the districts themselves, see our guide to Lisbon's neighbourhoods.
Frequently asked questions
What is a prédio de rendimento?
A building put up by an owner to let its apartments, often with shops on the ground floor. In Lisbon many were built between 1930 and 1960 and later divided into individually owned flats.
Where can I see Art Deco architecture in Lisbon?
In the work of architects such as Cassiano Branco and Pardal Monteiro, along the Avenida da Liberdade and in the Avenidas Novas. The former Hotel Vitória, with its rounded corner balconies, is a clear example.
What is Português Suave?
An ironic name for the national, traditionalist architecture favoured by the Estado Novo in the 1940s, drawing on the baroque and Pombaline past.
Are Lisbon buildings of the 1940s made of concrete?
Usually in part. Buildings of about 1930 to 1960 are often of the mixed placa type, with masonry load-bearing walls and reinforced concrete slabs.
Do I need a use licence to buy an apartment in Lisbon?
It no longer has to be shown at the deed, but since 1 October 2026 the deed must say whether the urban title exists, is presented or is missing. Check it before the promissory contract; banks may still ask for it.
This article is general information and does not replace legal or technical advice. Sources: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Hemeroteca Digital (Ressano Garcia) and Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal (D. L. Pereira, 2016); Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa, archives (Pardal Monteiro, Cristino da Silva); docomomo journal 55 (2016); Trienal de Arquitetura de Lisboa, Open House; M. Marino and P. André, DINÂMIA'CET-IUL (2017); V. Bernardo et al., LNEC (2019); Lei n.º 2007, de 7 de maio de 1945; Decreto-Lei 10/2024. Photographs: Wiseguys Properties.
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