What architecture for the middle-class?

Abstract

On the cover of this Spring 2022 Special Issue of Cidades, Comunidades e Territórios, we find a picture of a billboard that reads: What architecture for the middle-class?1 Throughout June 2021, this was one out of four question-like provocations placed nearby University Institute of Lisbon (Iscte). Under the R&D project “Middle-Class Mass Housing (MCMH) in Europe, Africa and Asia”2, Iscte hosted the related International Conference “Optimistic Suburbia 2 – Middle-Class Mass Housing Complexes” (16-18 June 2021)3. Other questions were posed, not only on the billboards but also in two of the most read Portuguese newspapers a few days before the Conference to which this Special Issue refers. A short film, or teaser4, disclosed online also addressed these issues: Who was the architect who designed your apartment? Is a building worse than a house? Are the peripheries dormitories for the middle-class? These propositions catalysed some of the subsequent discussion on the case studies of MCMH project – shown and debated during the Conference. The international contribution nevertheless reached far more subsidiary debates under the MCMH ‘umbrella’ topic. This Special Issue is a small sample of the work produced by a few researchers5 who participated with their specific expertise. It can be rightly said that it is a true sample. At the Conference, there were 11 presenting sessions, from which 6 are represented in this Issue in odd numbers: sessions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11 all have one article. Thus, the texts constitute good examples of the prepared and discussed work.