| Resumo: | In Porto, rental apartment buildings, built by private promoters, appear as an alternative to the single-family house around the mid-twenties of the 20th century. Its concretisations come in various scales and specificities, originating variations due to several factors. In addition to the diversity of concepts regarding the city and architecture, these factors can be found among the urban location, the contractors' economic capacity and expectations, and above all, the intended profile of the client. This research work approaches the following problematic - the adoption of housing models and its transformation throughout time and the role of the context (socio-economic, regulatory, political urban, cultural) in this process. Under this perspective, the study is focused on three main questions: [1] the built environment genealogies and characteristics; [2] its relation with the city centre specific morphologies and contexts; [3] the building types and the multifamily housing models actually produced. Anchored in an extensive archive survey, followed by a systematic analysis of the internal structure of the buildings, this research seeks to demonstrate that: [1] the incorporation of the narrowness of the lot as a structuring module, the vertical accesses' emplacement and the number of apartments served by each access, constitute the parameters by which a system of permanencies is defined regarding the rental apartment building in Porto, suggesting a practice of continuities, as well as the corresponding building techniques traditions. In equal measure, the type and the emplacement of the ventilation systems, as well as the configuration of the building indicate a different filiation: the adaptation of housing models from other urban contexts. [2] solely by themselves the regulations do not constitute the unique typological determinant factors, in spite of being important elements in the perpetuation of certain architectural solutions. In fact, in certain parts of the city, the adopted models correspond to a particular period of time; on the contrary, in other situations, the models are built in the long term, stabilising formal solutions repeated and reinforced in the architecture of the city. Thus, within this process, the variants are issued from the combination of diverse factors that embody the narrowness of the lot as an experimental generator. [3] it is possible to identify a limited set of building types at use in the 1st half of the 20th century. These types, in confrontation with particularities of the lot, with the regulatory frame, with the specific programs commissioned and with the typological options, generated a significant amount of formal variants throughout several decades. The results achieved within this investigation allow to relate: apartment buildings and streets, housing and urban space, architecture and city. It is, thus, rightful to conclude that the methodological approach as well as the reasoning implied, more than circumscribed to a particular time or housing type, constitute an open research strategy available for other studies concerning either other buildings, other city parts, other contexts and realities.
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