Uma casa para todos e à imagem de cada um. SAAL Algarve e as consequências de um processo participativo: os bairros 25 de Abril e Zona Verde

Abstract

As an art born to think and plan Mankind's shelter and search for special perfection and total satisfaction of housing conditions, architecture has crossed several eras, throughout which, performing the same job and fighting for the same purpose.Although timeless, the architectural piece is more than the mere shelter, it is the shelter which leaves a signature and characterizes each and every era or civilization, for it is the reflection of those who plan it and those who serve it.After April 25th, 1974, Portuguese families that had been struggling for better housing conditions and the entire technician society in question, motivated by the revolution, are, therefore, the key to a study which intends on interpreting and reflecting on the results of a participated architecture. Based on the SAAL process, an innovative housing service which intended on exalting the right to a housing facility, regardless of the social and economic terms, this study is intended to understand under which way the citizen's participation has changed each project and, specially, how it has sustained the evolutional process.Just like architecture is a social and temporal reference, it can also be the individual reflection of the user. The SAAL-Algarve urban areas, designed by the architect José Veloso, particularly the neighborhoods 25 de Abril, in Lagos, and Zona Verde, in Bensafrim, are the study cases for this research project.After nearly 40 years, from a process that has sought to implement and reinforce the importance of the participation of the citizen at the city's construction, and the right to individual housing, there is the intention to evaluate the results from such housing strategies.