THE CCA PRESENTS THE SAAL PROCESS: HOUSING IN PORTUGAL 1974–1976.
An exhibition documenting the pioneering experiment that empowered architects and citizens to create housing with a place in the city.
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) presents The SAAL Process: Housing in Portugal 1974–76 from 12 May until 4 October 2015. It is the first major exhibition documenting SAAL, a pioneering political and architectural experiment designed to address extreme housing shortages and degrading living conditions. Named the Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local (SAAL), meaning Local Ambulatory Support Service, this government initiative deployed architects across Portugal to develop housing solutions that gave the underprivileged a place in the city. Its ambitious and idealistic character reflected the revolutionary spirit following the 1974 coup that ended the authoritarian Estado Novo regime. The newly created democratic government guaranteed financial support to enable a bottom-up social process joining architects with neighbourhood associations and citizens. The architects led technical teams (known as brigades) that designed projects with the residents rather than for them. SAAL resulted in 170 projects involving more than 40,000 families during its short period of only 26 months.
Forty years after its existence, SAAL remains relevant for expanding the social and political role of the architect, for addressing housing on the scale of the neighbourhood, and for inviting the participation of the buildings' occupants at the beginning of the process. Architects such as Gonçalo Byrne, Artur Rosa, Álvaro Siza, Fernando Távora and Manuel Vicente played a crucial role in dialogue with the population, developing new models for social housing that reconsidered the status of underprivileged neighbourhoods in the urban areas of Lisbon, Setúbal and Porto. Their work gained international attention at the time and had a deep impact on subsequent projects throughout Europe.
CfP: The Open Hand 2: Orientalism in the Pacific. Auckland, 9 September 2017.