The masters Siza and Souto de Moura often mention SAAL as a decisive experience in their trajectories. Behind the Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local stood the recently deceased Nuno Portas, an urbanist who in the wake of the Carnation Revolution served as Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Planning and launched this at once political and architectural experiment to address Portugal’s housing shortage, enabling low-income families to build homes with technical support. His contact with governments crossed the border in the 1980s, when he worked as a consultant in the metropolitan plans for Madrid, Santiago de Compostela, and Barcelona, to subsequently also work for Rio de Janeiro, Cabo Verde, the European Union, and the United Nations, ever guided by a staunch defense of the city for citizens.