Public Project
The Condo: Consequences of a long-term financial crisis
The Bella Guarda condo, located on the outskirts of Lisbon was presented in March 2006. The project, consisting of two blocks and 75 apartments offered to its future owners a privileged view over the Tagus River, private park, rooftop pool, mini-golf, green areas, children's playground, video surveillance system, and sound system. However, like many other projects whose construction began before the financial crisis, it turned out incomplete due to the bankruptcy of the builder, and the property passed into the hands of a private bank.
With the worsening of the financial crisis in Portugal, a serious social crisis raised. Progressively the condo started to be occupied by people who had slept on the streets for years, but also by people who lost their jobs recently and no longer could afford to pay for the houses in which they lived. Some of them came just passing by, others to stay.
To gain protection they blocked the windows and doors with wooden planks, took with them the little or nothing that they possessed, and started to call that place their new “home”.
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