LabourMap-Macau – Mass labour impact on Public Works in Macau under Portuguese administration (1849-1999)

LabourMap-Macau – Mass labour impact on Public Works in Macau under Portuguese administration (1849-1999)

LabourMap-Macao will evaluate the role(s) and impact of mass labour on colonial public works (CPW) in Macau to shed light on (still) invisible workers.

It will survey master plans, architectural projects, construction sites, and labour movements to offer more complex narratives on the relationship between the history of China and Portuguese colonisation through PW construction.

The project aims for a broader intersection of agents and geographies and to open a new line of research intersecting architectural, labour, and construction history studies. It will cross two colonial powers – the Portuguese and the British – with two different colonial settings – Macau and Hong Kong. Four case studies will be surveyed: the São Januário Hospital (1872, with many construction phases until 1958), the Inner Harbour (1883-1920s), the Pedro Nolasco Commercial School (1963-1968), and the Luen Pong Building (1960s-70s).