The Carnation Revolution (1974-75) entailed the collapse of the old Portuguese colonial empire. The liberation of the former colonies prompted the exit from Angola, Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe of 500 000 to 800 000 refugees and ‘retornados’ (returnees), who moved to Portugal for a plethora of political, economic and social reasons. It was clear that the Portuguese State did not have the necessary housing stock to settle those newcomers. Thus, after ad-hoc and chaotic temporary solutions, the Fundo de Fomento da Habitação – FFH (Housing Development Fund), a State institution for promoting public housing, set out the Comissão para o Alojamento de Refugiados – CAR (Refugee Housing Commission), a housing programme specifically catering to those uprooted families. The CAR programme reflects the complicated entanglements between decolonization, housing shortage, social inequality and the making of the post-revolutionary territory. And yet, it was never the object of any specific study. The CAR proposed to create estates of prefabricated housing bought by the FFH to private suppliers, with municipalities ensuring the land for the development and promoting the urbanization works. During its short span (1976-1982), with some developments finished later, the CAR was hampered by bureaucratic and technical difficulties. Still, it produced dozens of estates in all of Portugal, from urban to suburban and rural contexts. In some cases, the CAR estates were also used to supply additional housing for locals in need, thus mixing the refugees with people from other rehousing operations. Despite its wide distribution in the territory and the exceptional character of its construction techniques and target demographic, the CAR quickly slipped into oblivion within architectural and urban history. Even in accounts of the experiences of post-colonial refugees, the CAR has been often underestimated. There are several difficulties in studying the CAR programme...