[2] In Lisbon, a similar layout was achieved by a New York architect, who was commissioned to construct a development that centred on a large commercial mall in the 1970s (the first of its type to be completed using urban planning concepts in the capital).

In 1965, a draft plan for the future scheme was approved by the Government, implying the expropriation of five farms which were sharing this parcel of land and supplying Lisbon with agricultural goods.

[2] The early residents of the modern Portela were young couples with their children, many returning from the Portuguese Colonies, others liberal professionals such as lawyers, engineers, physicians, or judges and some older politicians, ostensibly from middle- to upper-middle class.

It is located barely two kilometres from Lisbon's International Airport and at the intersection of two of Portugal's main road axisways: the A1 (Lisbon-Oporto motorway) and A12-IC17 CRIL (Circular Regional Interior de Lisboa) inter-urban ring-roadway (linking it directly to the Vasco da Gama bridge and the southern part of the Tagus estuary.

[2] The Church of Cristo Rei da Portela is the pride of the Catholic faith community; erected slowly, through local contributions, it is a significant modern architectural design uncommon to the other Portuguese styles.

Generally, the parish is a linear alignment of roads, comprising a hundred 10- to 12-storey buildings, that form a rectangle which has a circular shaped shopping centre and a 20-storey tower at its very middle point.

With a large population density (approximately 12430 inhabitants per square kilometre), the parish is equipped with many collective structures including water supplies, sewage treatment, garbage pickup (with access to landfill in Vila Franca de Xira) and recently the canalization of natural gas.