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.

We thank Mariana Leite Braga and Maria Assunção Gato for the dedicated support in the editing of this number. We also thank all our reviewers, whose identification is omitted to insure the double-blind appraisal process.

• Civil Engineering - Engineering and Technology
• Sociology - Social Sciences
• Social and Economic Geography - Social Sciences

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Middle Class Mass Housing in Europe, Africa and Asia