The studio aims to develop ideas and strategies for socio-spatial interventions that foster social connections, inclusion and empowerment in Gaia, Portugal.
With Portugal becoming a popular tourist destination, the country is facing a serious housing crisis characterized by rapidly increasing house prices and rental costs. This situation has made housing unaffordable for many residents, especially young people and low-income families. As part of an international and transdisciplinary research project called DASH (Deliver sAfe and Affordable Housing), the Department of International Urbanism is collaborating with partners from (amongst others) Portugal to generate new ideas to promote affordable and safe housing and convert these ideas into housing products and services.
In this context, the Department of International Urbanism offers a studio focusing on the city of Porto and its neighboring town of Vila Nova de Gaia. Despite having a substantial building stock that includes well-known social housing projects developed over several decades in the 20th and 21st centuries, both Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia are challenged to find innovative strategies for increasing the availability of social housing units while, at the same time, limiting new construction to reduce the carbon footprint.
The suburban areas of Gaia are disconnected and disjointed, both socially and spatially. In the area of study, Roma community members are living in precarious housing conditions and face many prejudices. Additionally, there is a focus on destigmatizing social housing projects and leveraging their potential to create community spaces and social infrastructure for the surrounding neighborhoods. Together with our local DASH partners in Porto and Gaia, we will look into these existing strategies, processes and projects and develop new ideas for socio-spatial interventions that foster social connections, inclusion and empowerment.
This studio will be organized in parallel to a studio of the BSc and MSc Arch named COMMON GROUNDS: Housing as social infrastructure. Both studios will include a 6-days’ workshop in Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia (27.10.2025 – 02.11.2025) where we will get to know historical and contemporary social housing typologies and explore the planning site(s) through in-depth field work including mapping, interviews and transect walks.
