The Bones of Architecture

With: Brandlhuber+, 6a architects, Bruther, Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter, Alejandro Bernabeu, Ingegneri Pedrazzini Guidotti and Rui Furtado

Beyond the many elements that make up a building’s appearance, its physical preconditions remain the most important: those which hold the building together and keep it standing. Just as animals have bones, every building has a structure. Buildings are subject to fundamental and immutable laws which impose shapes, patterns, orders and constraints. While a structure represents authority over the physical form of a building, the overall design can manipulate the concept of a structure itself. The design and concept of structure is thus the point of departure for endlessly diverse approaches to the creation of architectural form.

The exhibition The Bones of Architecture examines the cultivation of structures at the service of architecture. Seven European architects and engineers show their individual works and approaches, reflecting upon rules, strategies and methods in structural design. Some seek to implement structural components within the overall building fabric, others create an explicitly readable skeleton that reveals its purpose through a substantive presence. At times, structural formations closely and directly trace an individual space through the projection of a programme; in contrast, they can also provide a long-term post-programmatic service by defining robust spaces that can be appropriated according to new users or needs.

For each of the seven offices, three projects have been chosen to both demonstrate and explore different design strategies. The selected projects are arranged and combined to allow for multiple connections between them, reflecting their basic structural concept, the materials used, the methods involved and the spaces imagined or created.

Exhibition curated by Mario Rinke.

The exhibition opening is accompanied by a colloquium on June 19. Two public dialogues with participants from around Europe will explore questions about the interrelation of structures and architecture, spaces and forces. See more information here: The Bones Colloquium.

Colloquium participants: Bruther (Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot), Atelier da Bouça (Filipa Guerreiro and Tiago Correia), Joseph Schwartz, Rui Furtado, Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter (Søren Johansen and Sebastian Skovsted), Andrea Pedrazzini, Alejandro Bernabeu, Fala (Ana Luísa Soares, Filipe Magalhães and Ahmed Belkhodja), André Tavares and Mario Rinke.

About Garagem Sul
Garagem Sul is a space dedicated to architecture at Centro Cultural de Belém, a cultural venue in Lisbon known for its music, dance and theatre program. Housed in a former parking garage, Garagem Sul offers a unique atmosphere for the presentation of architectural works and ideas. Projects at the Garage seek to present a wide range of different positions through which architects might redefine their role in society, and interrogate new means of building our world.

Related events
Throughout the summer, Garagem Sul will welcome other architectural events, such as Visits to the exhibition and the city, a series of guided tours to The Bones of Architecture and throughout Lisbon; Gardens of Stone, a temporary construction made in cork by the Portuguese atelier Barbas Lopes; and an open air screening My Parents.