Snack-bars, just like abroad

Text Patrícia Bento d’Almeida

Architects Victor Palla and Joaquim Bento d’Almeida were pioneers in the design of snack bars in Portugal. Among the more than twenty snack bars they designed, the first – Términus, which opened in 1949 – and the only one that has survived to the present day – Galeto, which opened in 1966 – are noteworthy for how their respective design processes were associated with trips around Western Europe, in which the architects and their clients went in search of the most modern and specialised models. This section presents a broad view of what differentiates a snack bar designed by this duo of architects from a café or an anonymous pastry shop from the same period. It seeks to highlight how the knowledge previously acquired (through travels and also through national and foreign periodicals), associated with the remarkable ability to observe the needs of the population – be it the owners, the clients and the workers of these new establishments –, allowed them to revolutionise the restaurante sector but also Portugal’s urban daily life.

Text: Patrícia Bento d’Almeida
Images: Victor Palla and Joaquim Bento d’Almeida Archives

Patrícia Bento d’Almeida

Patrícia Bento d’Almeida is an architect with a master and a PhD in History of Contemporary Art. Nowadays she is an Integrated Doctorate Researcher of the research team at DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Centre for Socioeconomic Change and Territorial Studies, where she is developing the postdoctoral research project LNEC, the Portuguese National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, and the History of Architecture Research (SFRH/BPD/117167/2016). Her scientific activity focuses on the following areas of research: History of Architecture and Urbanism Contemporaneous in Portugal; Contemporary architectural and urban heritage in Portugal; Artistic Studies. She has experience in exhibition curating and has published several articles in specialised magazines and books.