This book is the result of the doctoral thesis developed by the architect Rui Ferreira, under the guidance of professors Carlos Maia and Jorge Branco, at the School of Architecture, Art and Design of the University of Minho. This work presents and analyzes the set of projects carried out within the scope of the competitions promoted by the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation (IHRU) and the Urban Rehabilitation Societies (SRU) for Controlled Cost Housing (HPCC) in Portugal, between 2020 and 2023. This initiative integrates the collective effort of Portuguese architects and researchers to understand the multiple dimensions of the issues surrounding public housing in the country, including the volume “Housing: one hundred years of public policies in Portugal, 1918/2018”, organized by Ricardo Agarez, which had the collaboration of several researchers and was published by IHRU itself in 2018, the research project “Housing Map”, developed at the Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Porto under the coordination of Professor Rui Garcia Ramos, and the collaborative initiative “More than Houses”, led by the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto, which involved practically all architecture schools in the country.

The selection of projects and the chronological arc analyzed correspond to a moment of intense and concentrated incentive for housing production, usually marked by the inconsistency and succession of policies and programs that are not always convergent. By organizing and examining this production from the point of view of architecture, the study contributes with pertinent questions and with a constructive reflection on its impacts and limits.

(Excerpt from the introduction, p. 8)

Book available: HERE