Pink Panther: building-city, beyond utopia and dystopia
Topias Urbanas

Sinopsis

In the 1960s, Chelas was a laboratory of utopian models for collective housing. This was how the Pantera Cor-de-Rosa [Pink Panther] came into being, a housing complex in Bairro dos Lóios composed of various buildings which together form a space-street that includes a garden and a public square. Galleries and bridges make the connection between the houses and the city. Instead of strengthening the ties of neighbourliness, these passages call for the residents to engage in a daily negotiation of their collective use, creating situations of insecurity and giving rise to disputes about the conditions for circulating in the housing complex. A number of myths have been created about this building-city. Some say that it was originally planned to serve as a hospital, or as a prison. This analogy between an architecture that was designed to strengthen the ties of neighbourliness with others that are intended to be used for correction or treatment, reflects the lack of coordination between the intentions behind the planned space and the experience of its residents.

Together with the residents, Topias Urbanas have designed a game that can be played based on these questions and which, in an ironic and playful fashion, combines memories, myths and experiences linked to this building-city, with questions and situations arising from the use of the spaces that are halfway between being public and private. Come and play!