The Autonomous Housing Intervention in Campanhã celebrates a non-standardised building tradition that emphasises expression, improvisation, and agency. Amid a global housing shortage, this project proposes an affordable housing scheme which responds to the rigid rhythms of working-class dwellings during Portugal's authoritarian Estado Novo regime.

Situated in an abandoned industrial site, the project proposes a ‘score’ for new forms of expressive labour. This ‘score’ provides a footprint for dwelling units around a former power plant, to be gradually carried out and interpreted by residents as the site becomes decontaminated and populated. Simultaneously, the scheme introduces a method of building that challenges the standardisation often associated with prefabricated components in social housing projects.

Utilising the flexibility of fabric formwork and casting, the project aims to develop a process that can be affordable, improvisational, and expressive. Traces of this process are preserved to serve an educational aim: equipping young residents with new skills and tools in construction, able to fuel the local economy.