How will we live together?" is the question proposed by the Lebanese architect Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 17th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale, aiming to bring to the discussion the future and the challenges we will face, as well as the neglected role of the architects as civilised promoters and protectors of the contract of these spaces. 

In 2021, the studio depA will be in charge of the Portuguese Official Representation, with the project In Conflict selected through a competition of the Directorate-General for the Arts. As a direct response to this challenge, the goal is to learn from processes characterized by conflict, questioning the problem of living, in its physical and social dimensions. 

In Conflict challenges the public through two complementary moments - exhibition and debate. The first, showcased at the Palazzo Giustinian Lolin in Venice, gives news of the Portuguese architecture of the period of democracy, from seven processes marked by material destruction, social displacement or popular participation. A journey through 45 years of democracy, which explores problems, scales and modes of action reflected in Portuguese architecture.

To think about the role of architecture as an artistic, public, political and ethical discipline, the debates are part of this programme and take place in three different coordinates: Venice, at the Pavilion of Portugal; Lisbon, at the headquarters of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale; and Porto, at the Mira Forum. The three proposals chosen from the open call will be part of an international series of six debates taking place around a table, hoping to fullfil the project of a common future.

Debate Series
Online

Debating Lisbon's Future Housing Strategy
14 March, 18:30

Housing is one of the defining pillars of democratic societies. The total of the State Budgets for housing in 2019 and 2020 was €230 million. This benchmark figure will be added to with €1.633 billion in 2021-2026, via the European RRP subsidy. Despite the recent strategies proposed in the New Generation of Housing Policies, little debate on a municipal level has covered civil society or agents of territorial transformation.

After four weeks of public online discussion, we invited the councilman for urbanism of Lisbon Municipal Council, Ricardo Veludo; the architect Inês Lobo; Filipa Roseta, member of parliament and architect and, finally, geographer and activist Luís Mendes to a debate on property, participation, and typology for the city of Lisbon.

We took the proximity in time of the Venice Architectural Biennale and the local elections in Portugal, as an opportunity to foster democratic dialogue in the construction of the city and to reclaim for architects as a class that is politically committed to the question, How will we live together?

Debate Link: here
Organised by: Gennaro Giacalone, João Romão, Margarida Leão
Guests: Ricardo Veludo, Inês Lobo, Filipa Roseta, Luís Mendes

Instant City
28 March, 18:30

This debate aims to discuss emergency settlements for displaced populations worldwide due to war or political, climatic and sanitary conditions. There are currently 80 million refugees, many in camps that are the spatialisation of expulsion and exclusion, with precarious safety and hygiene conditions. Alongside, a billion people live in slums, ever-growing geographies of social vulnerability. While architecture and urban planning generally fall short in responding, what can we learn from these instant cities? What do they reveal about the role of architecture in the humanitarian dilemma and our unstable world? Some consider informal solutions more efficient than over-planned schemes; others claim the value of camps dwellers’ DIY solutions as agents of production of space. Alongside, architects keep developing modular and mobile housing systems. Which perspectives apply to migrant settlements? Enquiring how will we live together requires focusing on the physical expressions of conflict.

Debate Link: here
Organised by: Bernardo Amaral, Carlos Machado e Moura
Guests: Manuel Herz, Maria Neto, Michel Agier

Lines of Violence
11 April, 18:30

In 1961, Jane Jacobs and Lewis Mumford published, almost simultaneously, their most influential works. The co-existence of their visions in public debate lead to a conflict, still unsolved, in architecture and urbanism. Conflict makes contemporary urbanization more tangible, challenging the established order and its lines of violence. But to analyse conflict, or to be in conflict, focus our minds in the production of the conflict itself. It leads to dualist ways of thinking, of mutual meaning, rationality and sensibility. Warlike lexicon seems inevitable - fight, resistance, emergency, occupy, resilience, strategy, extinction. All is connected – health, housing, mobility, segregation, economy, politics, culture. Reasons are fundamental to urbanity, to life, to democracy and our existence. Is there guidance on dreams, hope and knowledge when we live in conflict? Or, is their absence the trigger to confront public perception to the way we are building the places we live in.

Debate Link: here
Organised by: Patrícia Robalo
Guests: Aitor Varea Oro, Ana Bigotte Vieira, Helena Barbosa Amaro, Lígia Nunes, Nuno Leão e Sandra Lang.

Debate Series
In-person

Public Housing - No Silver
16 June, 19:00
Palácio Sinel de Cordes, Lisboa

Organised by: Samuel de Brito Gonçalves
Guests: Álvaro Domingues, Helena Roseta, Joana Couceiro, Sónia Alves

Domestic Matters
17 June, 19:00
Palácio Sinel de Cordes, Lisboa

Organised by: Anna Puigjaner, Moisés Puente
Guests: b+, Lacol

Decolonising the City
18 September, 17:00
Mira Forum, Porto

Organised by: Ana Jara, Miguel Cardina
Guests: Dori Nigro, Marta Lança, Paulo Moreira

Struggle Within Conflict
19 September, 17:00
Mira Forum, Porto

Organised by: Francisco Calheiros, Maria Trabulo 
Guests: Ana Naomi de Sousa, Jose António Pinto, Marina Otero Verzier 

To follow the detailed programme you can check the official website.

depA architects

The collective was created in Porto in 2009 and is coordinated by Carlos Azevedo, João Crisóstomo and Luís Sobral, who work together with a team of collaborators in the areas of architecture and social sciences. depA is focused on researching architectural practice through active listening on the idiosyncrasies of each project. There is a specific commitment to the dimension of time in the interventions: ranging from the interpretation of existing structures and architectural heritage to the open and progressive reintegration of spatial systems.

Alongside this depA seeks to keep its practices and investigations relevant by taking part in competitions, which are special moments for wide-ranging and compelling research. They have also developed projects of greater artistic orientation that challenge the approach to architectural techniques. They were invited to create the scenography for Fórum do Futuro in 2018 and, in the same year, the Lake Pavilion, built in Serralves park, as part of the 32nd São Paulo Biennial - Living Uncertainty, which was also selected to be exhibited at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, (Biennale di Venezia 2018). This Porto-based collective also worked with film producer Daniel Steegman and the artists Lais Myrrha and Dayana Lucas. In 2019, depA was awarded the tender for the curatorship of the Portuguese representation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, in 2020, with the In Conflict project.