The SAAL Process
Nuno Grande interviews Nuno Portas
As Portugal’s secretary of state for housing after the 1974 revolution, the architect, urban planner, and critic Nuno Portas initiated SAAL, an architectural and political experiment intended to address extreme housing shortages and poor living conditions in Portuguese cities.
Nuno Grande, a Portuguese architect who organized a series of public conversations in neighbourhoods that resulted from the SAAL program, discusses with Nuno Portas the idea of “empowerment,” the influences that shaped SAAL, the challenges it faced and its legacy today.
This interview was carried out in the context of The SAAL Process: Housing in Portugal 1974–76, an exhibition we presented in 2015.