Andreia Garcia
Head curator
Ana Neiva e Diogo Aguiar
Deputy curators
Fertile Futures expresses the understanding of "The Laboratory of the Future", the general theme proposed by Lesley Lokko for the 18th International Exhibition of Architecture – La Biennale di Venezia 2023, which calls for, in addition to a set of urgent issues, a set of how-to guidelines. “The Laboratory of the future" urges us to create, from a methodological perspective, an exploratory programme, simultaneously clear and complex, based on laboratory and collaborative dynamics.
The title of the proposal underlines the speculative character of the Representation of Portuguese Architecture, aiming to contribute to the design of fairer, more inclusive, more equitable and more diverse Futures, but also more Fertile ones, heralding a greener, more imaginative, generous, abundant, positive, productive, responsible, feminine, and plural future.
The programme proposed by Fertile Futures defends the laboratory dimension of architectural design in dialogue with other disciplinary areas, and the ability to move forward, seeking to imagine the future, requiring the contribution of multidisciplinary discourse in the design of solutions to emerging issues that tend to go beyond the singular domain of the work of architects. While discussing and proposing strategies for the management, protection and transformation of freshwater and contributing to a debate that is common and global, Fertile Futures focuses on the scarcity and management of this resource, in the Portuguese territory.
Investing in the strategic complementarity between practice, theory and teaching in architecture, a tripartite approach to experimentation and common reflection is defined: seven Design Teams, whose work is the body of the propositional exhibition in Venice; five Assemblies of Thought, moments of reciprocal (re)learning based on the coexistence of knowledge; and an International Summer Seminar where students collectively rehearse speculative installations.
Design Teams
Expanding the ephemeral existence of a national representation in Venice, Fertile Futures will involve new generations in the development of solutions for the reservoirs of the future, based on close contact with seven hydrogeographies, exemplifying the anthropocentric action on water, natural and finite resources.
Young architectural ateliers are encouraged to work with specialists from other disciplinary areas, starting from design laboratories. Based on innovation and mediation strategies which seek to understand different scales of reality, the common imagination of more positive scenarios is encouraged and other ways of performing architecture are also fostered.
Based on local involvement with the specificities of territorially dispersed hydrogeographies, the propositional solutions under development in the Design Teams aim to promote forms of global action, as well as the discussion of new ways of operating at the territorial scale, as well as at the small scale.
The work developed by the seven teams of architects and specialists occupies the seven exhibition halls in the Palazzo Franchetti. In the central hall, a water line organises the space and its flow emanating from a gesture that evokes symbolic and metaphorical dimensions, in a sensory and emotional experience.
Assemblies of Thought
Supporting and expanding the work developed by the Design Teams, Fertile Futures has a group of consultants, from different disciplinary areas and a wide territorial scope. It constitutes an independent thought laboratory that informs and supports the construction of speculative architectural visions of social, environmental and climate justice, in an active and participatory way, fostering the development of multidisciplinary practices.
The Assemblies of Thought, in multiple locations between Portugal and Venice, allow for the monitoring, support and expansion of all these experiences, deepening and enriching the thematic approach, as well as contributing to “tracing a path for the public”, involving the local, Portuguese and international community in the discussion of the proposed central theme. The consultants are: Álvaro Domingues, Ana Tostões, Andres Lepik, Francisco Ferreira, Luca Astorri, Margarida Waco, Marina Otero, Patti Anahory, Pedro Gadanho and Pedro Ignacio Alonso.
International Summer Seminar
Thematic awareness, collaborative experience, and an understanding of an expanded field of action are shared at the International Summer Seminar. The " temporary displacement” of architecture students from diverse contexts, to Fundão, aims at the horizontal sharing of knowledge, through "direct experience" and the opportunity to establish new dialogues.
Fundão is part of the list of eight Portuguese cities included in the European Union Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change. The municipality is a territory that is deeply affected by water scarcity and highly intensive agriculture, fires and desertification, and simultaneously, is representative of investments in social inclusion and expanding technological developments in the inland region.
With tutoring from the Design Teams and the participation of national and international students, selected by open call and reinforced by institutional partnerships, the intervention materialises in the self-construction of installations scattered throughout the territory, developing strategies for the capture, fixation, use and/or redistribution of water in the municipality of Fundão.
The International Summer Seminar aims to raise awareness in future generations of alternative ways of doing architecture, favouring the cornerstones and the hopeful future of the project Fertile Futures, beyond the period of the exhibition.
Addressing common and intersecting issues, Fertile Futures defends that a laboratory cannot present known results at the outset and, therefore, collaborating with other disciplinary areas, it promotes the production of speculative investigations, presented in word and drawing form, for an exhibition that thinks about a fertile, sustainable and equitable future, to be presented at the 18th International Exhibition of Architecture – La Biennale di Venezia 2023. In summary, Fertile Futures reiterates the transformative capacity of an architectural exhibition, as a knowledge production platform.
Head curator
Andreia Garcia
Andreia Garcia is an architect, curator,
editor, researcher, and university professor. Her
research field is defined by an architectural
practice that expands the disciplinary
intersection with complementary areas.
Her interests focus on contemporary
architectural practice in an era marked by
intense technological advances and a growing
ecological crisis. She is founder of the
Architectural Affairs studio, founder, and
director of the Art(e)facts Knowledge Biennial
and co-founder of Galeria de Arquitetura, an
independent space for the reflection and debate
on architecture, city and territory. She was
Visiting Assistant Professor at the Architecture
School of the University of Minho and studio
tutor at the Architectural Association, in
London. She is Assistant Professor and Vice-
-President of the Faculty of Engineering
of the University of Beira Interior.
Deputy curators
Ana Neiva
Ana Neiva is an architect, teacher, and
researcher, with a PhD from the Faculty of
Architecture of the University of Porto. She
has been Visiting Assistant Professor at
FAUP since 2013 and is Assistant Professor
at FCAATI-ULP and Vice-director of the
Centre for Studies in Architecture ARQ.ID
at Lusófona University. She is a founding
member of the research group Narrativas do
Projeto Educativo em Arquitetura at CEAU-FAUP.
She regularly participates as an author in
international conferences and congresses,
and in the organisation of scientific events.
Her research focuses on the curatorship of
architecture and on the expansion of the
discipline to include the dimensions of art,
society, health and well-being.
Diogo Aguiar
Diogo Aguiar is an architect, who
graduated from FAUP (2008). He co-founded
LIKEarchitects (2010–2015), selected for the
Portuguese Official Representation of the
14th International Architecture Exhibition
of La Biennale di Venezia in 2014. In 2016
he established the Diogo Aguiar Studio, a
multidisciplinary studio working between the
boundaries of art and architecture, selected
for the Portuguese Official Representation
of the 16th International Architecture
Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2018.
He is co-founder and co-curator of Galeria
de Arquitetura, an independent space for
the reflection and debate on architecture,
city and territory. He was co-curator of the
Architecture Programme of Maia Contemporary
Art Biennale (2019), Visiting Professor in
the master’s in architecture at ISCTE-IUL
(2020–2021) and Visiting Professor in the
master’s in architecture at FAUP (2021–2022).
Design Teams
Tâmega Basin
Space Transcribers
Space Transcribers is an organisation
coordinated by the architects Daniel
Duarte Pereira and Fernando P. Ferreira
which explores ways to investigate,
represent and imagine the built environment
collaboratively. Their methodology is based
on immersive investigations of the places
and communities in which they operate,
which through site-specific mediation and
transcription actions, blur the boundaries
between art and architecture. This non-profit
organisation, based in Braga since 2015,
develops research projects in collaboration
with public entities related to different
themes and contexts of Portuguese territory,
such as transformation processes of the
agricultural landscape, in its relationship
between technological development and
the management of hydrographic and soil
resources, or in situations of socio-spatial
conflict in urban regeneration processes.
Álvaro Domingues
Álvaro Domingues is a geographer with a
PhD in Human Geography from the Faculty of
Arts and Humanities of University of Porto
in 1994. Since 1999, he has been a professor
of the Integrated Master and PhD course
and member of the Scientific Council of the
Faculty of Architecture of the University
of Porto and a corresponding member of the
Lisbon Academy of Sciences. As a researcher
at the Center for Studies in Architecture
and Urbanism (CEAU-FAUP), he has developed
a regular programme of research and
publication on projects with the Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, the Foundation
for Science and Technology, the Serralves
Foundation, and the Francisco Manuel dos
Santos Foundation, among others. At CEAU-FAUP
his activity focuses on Human Geography,
Landscape, Urbanism and Urban Policies.
International Douro
Dulcineia Santos Studio
Dulcineia Santos Studio is an architecture
studio founded in 2018 by Dulcineia Neves dos
Santos and has established itself through a
body of work rooted in experimentation and
interdisciplinary intersections. Within the
scope of the Fertile Futures project, Dulcineia
Santos Studio creates the Douro Internacional
Laboratory, a team and a place of research
conducted extended to the collaboration of the
architect, professor and researcher Frederico
Moncada, the sustainable venture builder
Georges Lieben and the artist, architect and
researcher Ivana Sehic, as a way to promote
informed and collaborative responses.
Dulcineia Neves dos Santos is an
architect who graduated from the Faculty
of Architecture of the University of Porto
(2007), was a trainee architect in Paris with
Lacaton & Vassal (2005–2006) and worked with
Herzog & De Meuron in Basel (2009–2017).
She was a Guest Assistant at the Faculty
of Architecture of the University of Porto,
is co-author and co-editor of several
independent projects and publications within
Architectural and Photographic culture,
mostly under the Pierrot le Fou seal,
an entity she co-founded in 2012.
João Pedro Matos Fernandes
João Pedro Matos Fernandes graduated
in Civil Engineering from FEUP and holds a
master’s degree in Transportation from IST. He
was a technician of CCRN (1990–1995), Assistant
to the Secretary of State for Natural Resources
and Head of Office of the Assistant Secretary of
State of the Minister of the Environment (1996–
1999), Administrator of Quaternaire Portugal
(1999–2005), Manager at Nacala Port (Mozambique
2012–2013), Chairman of the Board of Directors
of the municipal company Águas do Porto
(2014–2015). He was the Minister of Environment,
Minister of Environment and Energy Transition
and Minister of Environment and Climate Action
(2015–2022). Currently, he is Visiting Full
Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the
University of Porto and consultant at Instituto
do Conhecimento.
Middle Tagus
Guida Marques
Guida Marques graduated from the
Department of Architecture of the University
of Coimbra with the master's dissertation
Por uma arquitetura dos sentidos (2011), and a
master's degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts
of the University of Lisbon (2016-18), where
she gave performances in peripheral sites
that made her reconsider how places with
memory were built. Today she is a neo-rural,
mixed media artist, politician and architect
of the hinterlands who perceives architecture
as a tangle of things and above all, treats
it as a healing process, the healing of
memory and the healing of the future. She
makes performance art about these processes
of architecture, about the reconstruction
of a place, imbued with love for the ruins,
and is an activist in defence of the rural
environment, the forest, the springs,
the rivers, animals, organic agriculture,
and other traditions.
Érica Castanheira
Érica Castanheira graduated in
Environmental Engineering from the
Agriculture School of the Polytechnic
Institute of Coimbra, with a master’s in
Energy and Environmental Management
from the University of Aveiro, and a PhD
in Sustainable Energy Systems from the
University of Coimbra. She is the VicePresident of the Polytechnic Institute of
Coimbra and a Guest Assistant Professor
at the University of Coimbra. She
develops research into the assessment of
sustainability of the life cycle of products,
of the carbon and water footprint of
agrifood products and bioenergy. Of note is
her co-creation work with the Department of
Landscape Architecture – Harvard Graduate
School of Design, which develops solutions to
increase the resilience of the areas affected
by the fires of 2017 in Arganil, adding value
and promoting architecture as an artistic
act but also as a vector of innovation.
Alqueva Dam
Pedrêz
Pedrêz was founded in 2020 in Porto
by Matilde Cabral and Francisco Fonseca
from the merger of the fashion development
studio Fashion Office and the experimental
architecture workshop Skrei, with works
presented in institutions such as Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation, Columbia University,
Royal Academy of Arts, 16th International
Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di
Venezia in 2018 and Istanbul Design Triennale
(2020), among others. Pedrêz emerges as
a workshop for applied research in the
areas of systemic ecology and housing
subsistence, with ongoing projects: Cápsulas,
designation for nomadic peri-urban off-grid
units; Studere Sativa, a multidisciplinary
studio for the study and development of
constructions using cultivable materials;
and Air-Water-Land Unit applied research
on water self-sufficiency and territorial
geoengineering.
Aurora Carapinha
Aurora Carapinha is a landscape
architect, with a PhD in Landscape Arts
and Techniques from the University of Evora,
where she is assistant professor in the
Department of Landscape, Environment and
Planning. She is Director of the PhD course
in Landscape Architecture at the University
of Évora and researcher at the Centre for
Art History and Artistic Research. Since
1996 she has been a guest lecturer of the
Specialization Course in Conservation and
Rehabilitation of Monuments and Historic
Cities at the Federal University of Bahia,
Brazil and was a member of the Advisory
Board of IPPAR. She demonstrates a great
concern for and dedication to environmental
issues, which she often deals with in
collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation.
Irrigation Perimeter of Mira River
Corpo Atelier
Corpo is an architecture and art studio
in the Algarve, founded in 2014 by Filipe
Paixão. The studio bases its practice
on the exploration and expansion of the
elements of architectural anatomy through
the practice of drawing and redesigning.
The territorial condition of the Algarve
geography strongly informs the studio’s
project response, both in its built aspect
and in the geographical aspect and the
realities it provides, making use of
invention and irony to subvert vernacular
logics into contemporary attitudes. In 2020,
it was awarded by Archdaily as one of the 20
best young practices and published Anatomias
Possíveis, a book containing thoughts, images
of drawings and models produced since the
beginning of the studio.
Eglantina Monteiro
Eglantina Monteiro lives and works
in Castro Marim and is an anthropologist
and activist for environmental issues. She
was Visiting Professor of Art Anthropology
(FBAUP) and of Cultural Anthropology at the
University of Algarve. In 2008 she co-founded
Companhia das Culturas, a project developed
around a hill in Barrocal Algarvio. She was
cocurator of Memória da Amazónia – Expressões
de Identidade e afirmação Étnica (Manaus, 1997),
an exhibition that generated a major debate
about the returning of Amerindian objects
previously held in museums, to the descendants
of those who produced them. She curated O
Retorno do Mundo – Memória e Vertigem (Porto,
2017) an exhibition about the dryland orchard
in Barrocal and Beira-Serra in the Algarve
region, establishing connections among
artists, scientists, or poets, reiterating
the implications of different knowledge
structures in the global transformations
of the planet.
LAGOA DAS SETE CIDADES
Ilhéu Atelier
lhéu is a young architecture studio,
based on the island of São Miguel, founded
by Rita Sampaio and Afonso Botelho Santos.
The practice is based on a reflection of the
place and overseas references, and translates
into an architecture that celebrates colour,
materials, and the narratives of its context.
The ideas are explored and expressed with
curiosity and enthusiasm, through a process
of drawings, collages and models of different
scales, that give rise to the investigation
of the materials and spatial and formal
possibilities of a contemporary architecture
that intends to be the bearer of the memory
and identity of the place.
João Mora Porteiro
João Mora Porteiro graduated in
Geography and Regional Planning at the
NOVA University of Lisbon and holds a PhD in
Geography from the University of the Azores,
where he has been a professor and researcher
since 1990. His main areas of interest are
territorial management in island areas, water
resources management, climate change, nature
conservation and regional geography, from
an interdisciplinary perspective, with an
emphasis on the transformative dynamics of
Azorean landscapes. In addition to scientific
research and university teaching activity, he
has participated in several R&D projects and
services, including more than 40 completed
studies, supported by European, regional,
and municipal funding. He is a member of the
Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic
Resources (CIBIO InBio – Azores).
Madeiran Streams
Ponto Atelier
Founded in 2016 by Ana Pedro Ferreira and
Pedro Maria Ribeiro, Ponto Atelier’s work
consists of a dynamic field of experimentation
with projects and ideas based on the memory
of the past and contemporary design. After
winning the 1st prize in the Duas casas nas Ilhas
Selvagens competition, they moved to Funchal
and joined the City Office team. In 2021 they
won the FAD award in the category of ephemeral
installations with the INBETWEEN pavilion,
Azores. Between 2014 and 2021 they were guest
professors at the University of Évora, DAue and
ISCTE, and tutors in the workshops W.A.V.E, IUAV
Venice and Summer School Moytirra (Azores).
In 2022 they integrated the exhibition The
Young New curated by André Tavares, in Garagem
Sul. Recently, in collaboration with CLAB
Architettura and Angelo Renna, they won the
international public competition Corso Libertà
– Freiheitsstrasse (Merano, Italy).
Ana Salgueiro
Ana Salgueiro is a PhD candidate in
Cultural Studies at the Catholic University
of Portugal, she has a master’s degree in
African Lusophone Literature and graduated
in LLM-Portuguese Studies at the Faculty
of Arts and Humanities of the University of
Lisbon. She is an integrated researcher at
the CECC-UCP (Lisbon) and collaborator at
the CEHA-AV and UMa-CIERL (Funchal). She is
co-author and coordinator of the Journal
TRANSLOCAL–Local and Urban Contemporary
Cultures, and her work has been mainly
concerned with the cultural systems of
Lusophone Macaronesia, addressing issues
such as: exile and human, cultural and
textual mobility; the connections between
culture and power; the relationships between
cultural, imaginary and natural phenomena;
and the role of artistic and academic
discourse in contemporary societies.
Head Curator
Andreia Garcia
Deputy curators
Ana Neiva
Diogo Aguiar
Organisation
Ministério da Cultura de Portugal
Pedro Adão e Silva, Minister of Culture
Commissioner
Direção-Geral das Artes
Américo Rodrigues, Director-General
Hydrogeography Workshops
– TÂMEGA BASIN
Space Transcribers
Álvaro Domingues
– INTERNATIONAL DOURO
Dulcineia Santos Studio
João Pedro Matos Fernandes
– MIDDLE TEJO
Guida Marques
Érica Castanheira
– ALQUEVA RESERVOIR
Pedrêz
Aurora Carapinha
– IRRIGATION PERIMETER OF MIRA RIVER
Corpo Atelier
Eglantina Monteiro
– LAGOA DAS SETE CIDADES
Ilhéu Atelier
João Mora Porteiro
– MADEIRA STREAMS
Ponto Atelier
Ana Salgueiro
Advisors
Álvaro Domingues
Ana Tostões
Andres Lepik
Francisco Ferreira
Luca Astorri
Margarida Waco
Marina Otero Verzier
Patti Anahory
Pedro Gadanho
Pedro Ignacio Alonso
EXHIBITION DESIGN
Diogo Aguiar Studio with Andreia Garcia and Ana Neiva
Executive Production and Communication (DGARTES)
Catarina Correia
Maria João Ferreira
Sofia Isidoro
Production Direction
João Terras
PRODUÇÃO LOCAL
João L. Moreira
Editing and Communication
Patrícia Coelho
PRESS
Greta Ruffino, The Link PR
Visual identity and Graphic Design
And Atelier
Website
Sara Orsi
Translations
Claudia Ricciuti
Fran Seftel with Russell Shackleford, Anabel Goulart
Kennis Translations, S.A
INSTALLATION
OTT ART
PUBLICATION
EDITORS
Andreia Garcia
Ana Neiva
Diogo Aguiar
PUBLISHED BY
Architectural Affairs
Editorial Coordination
Andreia Garcia
Patrícia Coelho
Graphic Design
And Atelier
Translations
Fran Seftel
Russell Shackleford
Anabel Goulart
Publishing and Printing Production
Forward Consulting
PRINTER
Gráfica Maiadouro
SPONSORS
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Câmara Municipal do Fundão
Casa da Arquitectura
Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa
EXHIBITION SPONSORS
panoramah!
O/M Light
CIN
Valchromat
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
Instituto Camões
Embaixada de Portugal em Itália
Aicep Portugal Global
Câmara Municipal de Faro
Câmara Municipal do Porto
Governo Regional da Região Autónoma da Madeira
Direção Regional dos Assuntos Culturais – Governo dos Açores
Theatro Circo
Fundação Serra Henriques
HOSTING PARTNERS
gnration
Porta 33
EDITORIAL PARTNERS
Canal 180
E-flux
Umbigo
MEDIA PARTNERS
ArchDaily
RTP – Rádio e Televisão de Portugal
Público
INSTITUTIONAL COLLABORATION
Universidade da Beira Interior
Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto
Fundação Marques da Silva
SPECIFIC SUPPORT
Abreu
Decer
Sogrape
PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL
Câmara Municipal do Fundão
Erasmus+
Universidade da Beira Interior
Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto