The development of mass housing, essentially in suburban areas, following modernist principles, has been associated with distressed neighborhoods in view of technical and social problems. In Southern Europe, mass housing was mainly developed by the private sector differently from other European societies. Consequently, middle classes were the main target of those developments. This presentation is based on two case-studies of middle-class housing estates, built in the seventies of the twentieth century, in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The goal is to look at the suburbanization process and to apprehend how these estates emerged in the context of the regional urban planning, how they developed and how they are perceived in terms of sense of belonging by their residents as well as levels of satisfaction. Methodologically, documental analysis of the plans of the housing estates in the context of the larger spatial management is considered as well as auscultation to the residents. Research indicates positive trajectories with high levels of satisfaction in living in these particular suburban neighborhoods

--

Mass Housing,Lisbon Metropolitan Area,Middle class