8th Edition, 2019

The question transversal to the emerging themes within the current public debate on the transformation of Lisbon—dwelling, public space, mobility, patrimony, segregations—is the construction of the urbanity of the spaces in which we live.

During the 20th century, the architectonic and urban ideas were based on the modern city, the garden-city, the crisis of the traditional city and the metropolitan explosion. However, in the face of a new stage of quick transformation, of great impact and operating according to new social, cultural, economic and political premises, we need new answers, new ideas and new models for intervention. To that extent, excluding Lisbon’s urban core from the geographic scope of Open House 2019 intends to overcome the example of traditional city as the sole construction of human condition. It intends to decentralize, diversify and expand the range of spaces within the guide.

In this edition, we propose to imagine urbanity through spaces that are new to the event—such as the Convent of São Domingos or the Lisbon School of Music—in general, inaccessible, but revealing the multiplicity of locations, urban settings, spatial, tectonic and programmatic dimensions of the spaces that compose Lisbon.

We also allow for new perspectives and experiences of the spaces we use on a daily basis, structuring everyday commuting or new means of connectivity, such as the networks for mobility or the Lisbon Arts and Crafts Network. Regarding these, we not only value the design and built spaces of stations, galleries and workshops, but also the interconnection, the functioning and the joint design integrated in a network.

We invite you to imagine urbanity by means of visiting open, public and/or temporary spaces, such as Feira do Relógio or the church of Santa Isabel. The programming also includes concerts, performances, films, debates and collective readings that boost the interpretations and physical dimensions of places selected from within the guide, connecting the Plus, Junior and Accessibility programmes.

The planning, theme and design of the 2019 edition of Open House Lisboa stems from this background. An opportunity to share with a diverse audience the need to question, appropriate and experience essential spaces to imagine Lisbon’s urbanity.

The 8th edition invites you to discover a Lisbon without a centre.

Architect, with a degree by the Faculty of Architecture of Universidade de Lisboa, Patrícia Robalo lives and works in Lisbon and is a PhD student in Porto’s Faculty of Architecture, conducting research on the processes of contemporary urban transformation. She has worked at De Blacam and Meagher Architects, in Dublin, and in various offices in Lisbon. She has her own architectural practice, especially working in dwelling, rehabilitation and commercial. Robalo has been invited to conferences, round tables and exhibitions, and she is author of various projects for the promotion and debate of architectonic and urban planning cultures. Among these projects, we find: Por Dentro da Área Metropolitana do Porto, a co-authorship with Sara Sucena; Outra Lisboa, whose final programming was an Associated Project of Triennale 2016, with the support of ISCTE DINÂMIA’CET–IUL; and Perspectivas Feministas sobre as Práticas Espaciais?, jointly organized with Mulheres na Arquitectura, association Robalo is a member of.

Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa