1 The rise of Social Dystopia or Optimistic Suburbia? The case of Portela

The relevance of an urban project, from a critical point of view, lies in its capacity to pose questions about the city and its future, as well as about current and past practices of the discipline. The strength of a critical argument might initiate productive discussions within and outside the circle of practioners, and therefore a pedagogical role can always be assigned to it. Fernando Silva’s urban plan for Portela (1960-1979) in the outskirts of Lisbon prompted important questions about urbanism, the contemporary city and the city dweller, that are still part of the contemporary architectural and urban agenda. The project raises many of the issues that have been frequently posed by architects, generation after generation: how can many individual worlds be tied together into one greater and inspiring whole? How are individuals expected to live within others? If the “home is a prime unexcavated site for an archaeology of sociability ” (Putnam, 1999: 144), can we find a direct relationship between idealised ways of socialising in the home and outside it? How does the idea of home relate directly to an idea of urban? Those question