From laboratory to upholstered sofa: equipment and furniture for health and science

• Autor(a) principal: Diniz, Sofia
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Martins, João Paulo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25761/anaisihmt.293

For the history of furniture of the twentieth century in Portugal it is important to study health premises. Hospitals, sanatoriums, preventoria, dispensaries, educational and research institutions, all of them promoted the use of furniture which at that moment was considered appropriate to their functions. Through the use of industrially produced objects, or designed from scratch for each building, health contexts played a particular significant role, which deserves a careful and transversal look. The processes of supplying furniture and equipment for premises built in the Lisbon region reveal not only practices and dynamics within State bodies, but also its most decisive actors. One of the names it is worth mentioning in this context is that of José Luís Amorim. Trained as an architect, working in public functions at certain periods, he has had a long and consistent career, namely for scientific research premises for health agencies for which he designed laboratories and work spaces, creating a language based on decades of experience. His name, however, has remained on the fringes of historiography and his work is likely to disappear, taking with it a particular dimension of the heritage of science and health.