Paper short abstract:

This presentation will focus on the role of local Public Works Departments in the construction of XIX century townscapes. Looking at Macao and Timor it will put in evidence the importance of locality and transcolonial connections in the production of the building environment in these territories.

Paper long abstract:

The Public Works were organized for the first time throughout the Portuguese empire in 1869. It was established that Public Works Departments would be created in all provinces, assembled in two main geographical areas: the Occidental and the Oriental provinces. Grounded in my post-doctoral research - that looks into the Public Works in the Oriental provinces (Macao and East Timor, India and Mozambique) and tries to identifying and reconstructing the mobility and circulation networks established between these territories - this presentation will focus on the particular cases of Macau and East Timor.

Placing in debate a methodological proposal on how to understand these interactions by following the different actors of this entanglement, it will put in contrast the links established between the territories of Macao and East Timor. Not forgetting their administrative interdependency, it aims display the importance of locality and transcolonial connections in the Public Works of the Oriental provinces of the Portuguese Empire.