What? When? Why not? Portuguese Architecture

Casa da Arquitectura - Portuguese Centre for Architecture welcomes the exhibition What? When? Why not? Portuguese Architecture displayed at the Casa’s Gallery between October 29 and April 24, 2022. Curated and designed by Jorge Figueira and Bruno Gil, it is an output of the research project “(EU)ROPA – Rise of Portuguese Architecture”, funded by FCT and based at the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra.

The project’s aim, of which the exhibition is a public revelation, is to identify, problematise and disseminate the concept of “Portuguese architecture” in the national and international contexts, confronting its history, ideas and methods, with a changing world. Although of recurrent use in the architectural debate, and not only, the expression “Portuguese architecture” had several meanings over time and deserved to be seen from various perspectives and in relation to contemporary debates. The aim of the project/exhibition is also to open the discussion to a broad audience, present the theme in various disciplinary and interdisciplinary dimensions, and convene multiple sensitivities.

As a cultural phenomenon, “Portuguese architecture” has gained increasing national and international expression in the last 30 years, also a result of the work of generations of architects and a history with reflections in the colonial past. Therefore, it is deeply involved in the geographical, cultural, and historical condition of the country. That is why it’s “Portuguese.”

What? When? Why not? Portuguese Architecture exposes the ongoing research, referring to the eleven “What?” that structure it: Portuguese, History, Historiography, Fascism, Colonialism, Democracy, Social, Women, Education, Research, Pop. A hexagonal “booth” dedicated to each of these themes allows us to analyse the researchers’ proposals in images, objects, and text. The result is a kaleidoscopic view of Portuguese architecture, admittedly complex and contradictory, beyond the simplifications that often portray it, from near or afar.

In this format and with this wide latitude, What? When? Why not? Portuguese Architecture proposes to deepen knowledge and conquer a new critical dimension for the theme, a perspective open to new understandings and disruptions at the national and international levels.

The exhibition is accompanied by an International Conference, with the same name, which will take place on October 30 at Casa da Arquitectura, and where the project coordinators, Jorge Figueira and Bruno Gil, and the nuclear researchers, Ana Vaz Milheiro, Carlos Machado e Moura, Carolina Coelho, Eliana Sousa Santos, Gonçalo Canto Moniz, José António Bandeirinha, Luís Miguel Correia, Nuno Grande, Patrícia Santos Pedrosa, Rui Lobo, will present the ongoing investigation.

Hans Ibelings is the keynote speaker, presenting peripheral and central cultures in the context of European architecture.

Cristiane Muniz, Director of Escola da Cidade and Fernando Viégas, president of Associação Escola da Cidade in São Paulo, will close the meeting.

The parallel programme to be announced, which will take place between January and April 2022, will deepen the exhibition’s themes.