Family workshop “Express Yourself,”

The Local Support Ambulatory Service (SAAL) was created in Portugal in the context of the Carnation Revolution of May 1974 as a pioneering political and architectural experiment to address the housing shortage and combat precarious housing conditions in areas such as the outskirts of Porto and Lisbon and the substandard housing in some neighborhoods in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The SAAL was run by architects and urban planners, in close collaboration with local communities, and managed to carry out more than 170 housing projects, providing accommodation for more than 40,000 families between 1974 and 1976. Although many projects could not be carried out due to the short duration of the experiment, they became a profound reflection on the right to housing, introducing the concept of citizen participation in urban planning development processes in Portugal and the way in which architects can contribute to serving society.

Faced with the wave of frustration that the end of SAAL generated among many families, the artist and educator Elvira Leite, in order to keep the spirit of struggle alive, proposed a series of collective actions for children in the Bairro da Sé community in Porto.

In the family workshop “Express Yourself,” focused on citizen advocacy and part of the activities of the exhibition “The City in Dispute,” we will produce different media in the form of posters, banners, and flyers, where we can express our fundamental right to housing.