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The Portuguese architecture is borderless due to the colonialism period. Many African countries can testify this influence and the cities still sprawling around remaining old buildings. These constructions are characterized by using local resources and adapting Portuguese architecture to the climatic characteristics and answering local natural hazards. The work developed presents a systematic approach about the constructive changes, identifying the solutions adopted for answering climatic demands. The passive solar systems used were categorized and some examples were selected according to examples found in African cities with Portuguese influence as Beira (Mozambique), Lubango, Namibe and Luanda (Angola) and Praia (Cape Verde). This analysis encompasses strategies to improve thermal behavior of buildings, as ventilation trough the analysis of ventilated roofs or windows geometry, shadowing devices as large eaves, brises and second facades, among other issues. The local construction was also analyzed in order to find out traditional techniques for cooling buildings in a natural way.

The current challenges of sustainable construction are frequently deemed incompatible or hardly reconcilable with the basic principles of heritage safeguarding and conservation. This issue may gradually be surpassed with a thorough integrated analysis of the rehabilitation solutions and a detailed knowledge of the existing building. This paper presents the application of an exploratory model for an integrated evaluation of rehabilitation actions according to different perspectives, such as local regulatory demands as well as sustainable heritage preservation concerns. The design of this approach was based on a constructive characterization and conservation state analysis of three city blocks located in the Historical Centre of the city of Viseu, in Portugal. The main goal was to create a tool that allows the evaluation of rehabilitation solutions according to different criteria, allowing a holistic comparison of its performance. This will allow technicians and decision-makers to perform more informed judgements, contributing to define a more global and sustainable renovation process.