Event organized and moderated by Fernanda Fragateiro and Jorge Carvalho, part of In Conflict, the Portuguese Official Representation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Biennale di Architettura 2021. Featuring Ângela Ferreira, Gérard Lambert, Paulo Tavares, and Rui Mendes.
Now, what are the paths forward? One might argue that these paths lead toward expansion—encompassing the domestication of nature, extraction, colonization, urbanization, and acceleration—or that they are reoriented toward contraction, covering renaturalization, relocation, repair, and memory. Yet, in an architectural design process, these paths become winding and intersect, as all stakeholders are committed to distinct tasks they must address now.
In our current era, where processes are overdetermined by economic factors, how can we seek representation for less powerful ways of life within urban infrastructure and logistics? Can the design of a riverfront "return the gaze" to institutional powers when it is inherently entangled with them? Are we capable of building symbols in the streets as challenging as those displayed in museums? And what is revealed when some of these ways of life regain representation through micro-utopian processes of space utilization? It is by debating the moments of conflict, negotiation, and alliance within concrete design processes that we will be able to distinguish the paths that lie before us.
