Polyvalent Center for Social Assistance - Rua Ascensão Guimares

One of the most important works of the architect Manuel Laginha is the Polyvalent Center for Social Assistance of Loulé, inaugurated in 1958. We see that Manuel Laginha, who designed this building together with the architect Rogério Martins, did not commit himself to the architectural ideologies of the "Estado Novo". The building is fully in line with the modernist movement after the Second World War. Any trace of "traditional" or "regional Algarve" architecture is hard to find in the exterior design. He does, however, make use of the factors that are typical for the Algarve: shielding from exposure to the sun and the integration of the building into the landscape. It has an original and dynamic facade finished with a pitched roof with "brise-soleils" in the style of modern Brazilian architecture, that was very popular in the early ’50