On August 25th, 2026, UC Berkeley’s Center for Portuguese Studies welcomed Portugal’s Secretary of State for Housing, Dr. Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, and Dr. Isaltino Morais, the mayor of the Municipality of Oeiras. Professor Luísa Caldas welcomed the delegation and brought together Berkeley faculty from architecture, economics, environmental studies, and related fields.
The topics of the meeting included Portugal’s housing crisis, public housing policy, sustainable development, construction technology, and opportunities for collaboration between Portugal and UC Berkeley. A central theme of the discussion was Portugal’s urgent need to increase its supply of public and affordable housing. Participants considered the many factors affecting housing production, including the availability of land, construction timelines, licensing and regulatory processes, labor shortages, and the role of public and private investment. There was particular interest in approaches that could accelerate construction while maintaining high standards for quality, sustainability, accessibility, and architectural design.
The group also explored the potential of modular and prefabricated construction to help address these challenges. Participants discussed how components of buildings can be manufactured in controlled factory environments and assembled rapidly on site, potentially reducing construction time, labor requirements, and costs. Examples from Portugal and California provided an opportunity to consider both the benefits and limitations of these approaches. The discussion also considered the potential for prefabrication to support greater population density in areas where land is particularly scarce.
The building projects undertaken by the Municipality of Oeiras provided an important example of how housing policy can be connected to broader strategies for social and economic development. Participants discussed the importance of ensuring that public housing is not only the provision of physical housing, but part of a broader effort to support families, strengthen communities, and create opportunities for long-term social mobility. Education was an important component of this broader approach. Oeiras has developed programs supporting children and young people in municipal housing, including study-support centers and opportunities to participate in sports and artistic activities, in tandem with policies on building projects.
Professor Caldas' MoU with the Municipality of Oeiras presents an opportunity to deepen the ties of research and scholarship between UC Berkeley researchers, the Center for Portuguese Studies, and Portugal more broadly. By connecting academic research with municipal experience and national housing policy, the attendees identified opportunities to advance more efficient, sustainable, and socially integrated approaches to housing and urban development.
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Luísa Caldas, Professor of Architecture
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Dr. Sofia Villas-Boas, Class of 1934 Robert Gordon Sproul Distinguished Professor in Agricultural Economics
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Dr. Miguel Villas-Boas, J. Gary Shansby Professor of Marketing Strategy
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Dr. Rosemary Gillespie, Professor; Schlinger Chair in Systematic Entomology
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Dr. Jeroen Dewulf, Academic Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies
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Sydney Weaver, Executive Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies
Portugal – Secretary of State for Housing
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Dr. Patrícia Gonçalves Costa, Secretary of State for Housing
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Lucina Carvalho, Expert Advisor to the Secretary of State for Housing
Municipality of Oeiras
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Dr. Isaltino Morais, Mayor of Oeiras
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Professor Pedro Patacho, City Councilor for Education, Science and Innovation
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Dr. Paula Saraiva, Municipal Director of General Administration
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Dr. Ana Morgado, Head of the Municipal Housing Strategy Office
Consulate General of Portugal in San Francisco
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Dr. Filipe Ramalheira, Consul General of Portugal in San Francisco