COUNTER-ARCHITECTURE
Re-Constructing Reality

Although it has not yet been considered an official geological epoch, there is no doubt that the Anthropocene is dominating both the academic and mainstream discourse, whether we agree with it or not: the apparent supremacy of mankind over Nature is a result of man’s scientific and technological actions. In 2019, scientists from around the world declared the state of “climate emergency” due to the impact of human activity on the environment, a significant part of which is presumably due to the construction industry. But that is not all: our way of living is definitely unsustainable. The resources of the planet that we keep on consuming can no longer be replaced by natural means. Therefore we will certainly witness a shift in paradigm.

If culture is closely linked to the ways of inhabiting a territory, architecture as a system will play an increasingly decisive role in the upcoming transformation process. Hence, it is necessary to promote a philosophical, scientific and economic idea of counter-architecture, in order to reconceptualize our relationship with Nature. The way we will rethink construction and urbanity, for instance, will certainly set up new challenges while also redefining the responsibility of architecture in the impact of human intervention on the environment in a broader sense.

Counter-architecture is a collaborative research-project taking place between September 2020 and January of 2021 — four performative actions, talks and debates that will result in a green paper, in the year where Lisbon is the European Green Capital, aimed to think the future of what we call “urbanity”.

Performative actions, talks and debates
Through four oppositions of fundamental concepts — “reality/fantasy”, “control/transgression”, “disclosure/concealment” and “logic/absurd” — will be discussed the methodologies for approaching environmental impact, in its broadest sense, and the architectural and urbanistic practices, aiming to generate productive disciplinary crossings and, certainly, confront the different methods of argumentation. The guests are members of public administration, architects, engineers, geographers, promotors, scientists, sociologists, lawyers, builders and other urban actors.

Session #1: 16/09/2020
Reality / Fantasy
Performative Action, Videoconference, Debate
16.00 – 20.00

Session #2: 25/09/2020
Control / Transgression
Performative Action, Videoconference, Debate
16.00 – 20.00

Session #3: 02/10/2020
Disclosure / Concealment
Performative Action, Videoconference, Debate
16.00 – 20.00

Session #4: 07/10/2020 
Logic / Absurd
Performative Action, Videoconference, Debate
16.00 – 20.00

Green Paper
Synthesis report, for the Public Administration and Cultural Institutions, which claims innovative (or disruptive) urban proposals regarding environmental crisis and the production of space in all its constitutive dimensions, as a critical object which echoes the performative actions, talks, debates and scientific conclusions.
Green Paper launch: January 2021

Co-organisation: efabula (Lucinda Correia, Rosa Matias Baptista, Andreia Páscoa, Sara Reis, Marta Rema, Susana Sequeira)