ODAM -A construção do moderno em Portugal: Entre o universal e o singular

ODAM makes clear the insertion in a modern spirit with a universal and associative face, not only by creating a collective, but for the wide character of its intervention space while advocate of a modern architecture in Portugal. From the associative scope, the teaching, the professional practice to its international exchange, as witnesses the participation of its members in CIAM congresses since 1951, ODAM group makes its statement through debating the counterclaiming of modern ideals in Portugal. However, the most meaningful of this group modern production (manifestos, projects, collective exhibitions and paradigmatic works) is placed more than in its ideal, as per to the great reference groups, in the awareness to the adjustment of the local specific circumstance, poor and peripheral, which acknowledged shared essays of unique added value. This retrospective analysis and critique of ODAM, while part of the wider picture that characterizes the "Arquitecturas en común" of the modern, besides (re)stating its original universal character, in our days comprehended more and more by its diverse speeches, vouches the critical revision of the modern architectural dogmas, at the time, present in the post-war architectures emerging in the European context. Of a more implicit than explicit reading, stands out the importance of debates, thoughts and most of all of ODAM's architectural production as genesis of today's Oporto architecture.