Assembleia de Abrantes Headquarters Building by Raul Lino

The Assembleia de Abrantes building, designed in 1923 and intended as the headquarters of a recreational and cultural club, was one of the first and most relevant projects of Raul Lino (1879-1974) in that city. The building was classified in 2014. This paper proposes the study and interpretation of its main architectural and construction features, in order to understand whether there is a correlation between the Casa Portuguesa programme advocated by Raul Lino and the programme of this building designed to house a local club. The methodology that guided this study focused on the analysis of primary and secondary sources (drawings, written architectural documentation, correspondence between the client and the architect, books and other written publications), photographic and geometric surveys and their graphic recording. Existing architectural documents were analysed. The study was also based on Lino’s theoretical reflections on the function and materiality of Portuguese dwellings, published between 1918 and 1933. It can be concluded that there is a correlation between the Casa Portuguesa programme and that of this building, relating to the internal organization of spaces and construction systems. This work enabled the identification and aggregation of project documents dispersed across two documentary funds. The results obtained contribute to the documentation of preliminary studies for future construction work on the Assembleia de Abrantes Headquarters building. This work aims to make an additional contribution to the interpretation and understanding of Raul Lino's architectural work, focusing on the construction perspective.