The photographic series produced by André Cepeda (Coimbra, 1976) are the result of a commission made within the framework of the exhibition ‘SAAL Process: Architecture and Participation 1974-76’, held at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in 2014. SAAL is an acronym for Serviço de Ambulatório de Apoio Local (Local Ambulatory Support Service) and involved the post-revolution development of social housing projects in Portugal that relied upon the active participation of the communities for which they were being built. Cepeda photographed the current appearance of two neighbourhoods: São Victor, designed by architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, and Antas, by architect Pedro Ramalho. Cepeda refrained from taking photographs that showed the architectural complexes as a whole. He shows us instead how the local inhabitants, over time, customized their homes with different doors and windows or simple plant arrangements.
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