In the final period of Portuguese colonization (1945-1975), architects faced a challenge: to build
the city for the local populations. This paper intends to explain the process of discovery of the
native settlements and how its study contributed to develop a "black" city planned by architects.
From the late 1950s on, the urban space and housing for the African populations is one of the
main architectural and urban programs carried by Portuguese architects in Africa. Facing the
fact of being economically impracticable and culturally undesirable to build neighbourhoods for
the "native" population in a European canon, architects start to survey the African habitat in
missions. The African house is one of the most studied subjects
