ARCHITECTURE:Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2016
The Lisbon Triennale is an open platform for debate, research and promotion of contemporary architecture founded in 2007. Unique in the Iberian Peninsula, it operates in a disciplinary field that benefits of great world recognition due to Portuguese architects who have over the years consolidated their presence outside Portugal, making a mark in the international cultural scene.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Lisbon Architecture Triennale Archive
Lisbon Architecture Triennale triggers the city into action every 3 years for a series of exhibitions, conferences, competitions, education activities, and installations. “The Form of Form”, its fourth edition, celebrates architecture’s fundamental principles. Four main exhibitions providing varied perspectives on the discipline are complemented by seven Satellites, which unfold around Lisbon and its outskirts, expanding the geographical reach of the event. An extended programme of Associated Projects widens the discussion and the exploration of new architectural paths. The exhibitions are hosted at the main venues in Lisbon’s cultural scene: the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, MAAT Museum and Garagem Sul – Belém Cultural Centre. In the exhibition “The Form of Form”, which proceeds from a potentially infinite repository, three architects build a dialogue that challenges notions of authorship and the limits of form. Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli were invited to reflect upon a selection of examples from the Socks platform. They highlight the permanence of form and its capacity to condense a set of values into any visible thing. Each of the spaces is designed to house content selected from the extensive Socks database. The exhibition “Building Site” is organized into modules linked by a common theme, which serve as anchors for exploring different approaches. One of the modules is presented in partnership with the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). Drawing from the professional archives of Cedric Price, it focuses on a report he produced in the ‘70s aimed at improving work conditions on building sites, providing very original insight into the organization of construction and work sites. The historical nature of the exhibition allows for cross-readings on issues that building sites generate, and invites the viewer to reflect on the transformations in contemporary building sites, the challenges they face and the impact they have on the practice of architecture. “The World in Our Eyes” focuses on urban space and its title can be interpreted on different levels. For this exhibition, the curators incite a debate between ways of describing and analysing the urban and territorial condition, in the present and the past, and focuses on two aspects of that view. “Sines: Seaside Logistics” is an exhibition about the relationship between the city of Sines and its industrial and logistic elements. How can architecture intervene in the mechanical creation of logistic infrastructures? How can we approach issues such as shared uses and the borderline spaces between the city proper and the waterfront in a context dominated by large-scale infrastructures? Taking such questions as a starting point, the curators propose an exercise that explores the boundaries between poetic transformation and political experience. The exhibition brings together academic projects by students and professors from 14 Portuguese architecture and landscape architecture courses in the context of the Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Universities Award.
Info: Curators: André Tavares & Diogo Seixas Lopes, Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2016, Duration: 5/10-11/12/16, Main Venues: 1. Museum of Art Architecture Tecnology (MAAT), Av. de Brasília, Central Tejo, Lisbon, Days & Hours: Wed-Mon 11:00-20:00, www.maat.pt 2. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Av. de Berna 45, Lisbon, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 9:00-17:30, https://gulbenkian.pt 3. Garagem Sul Cultural Centre of Belém, Praça do Império, Lisbon, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 8:00-20:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.ccb.pt 4. Triennale’s HQ, mCampo de Santa Clara 145, Lisbon, www.trienaldelisboa.com
