Describe your street. Describe another. Compare.”
― Georges Perec, L’infra Ordinaire

When you face the blank page to write about an architectural event that has been [and it’s been] widely discussed, the first thing to write is “what for?” Following Brendan Cormier’s question “What’s the use of an architecture triennal review?” maybe there’s no other motivation than to share the way you perceive an event which is wide enough that no one’s can give a complete vision of it, thus we can be one more piece of the puzzle that complete the whole program.

We’re not going to describe here the Lisbon Architecture Triennale program, which is easy to find on their web-site [Close, Closer]. Beyond that, maybe we can share our feelings and thoughts apropos the Triennale, after spending a few days at the opening… And the best way to describe them is as Perec-esque feelings. George Perec on his book L’infra Ordinaire poses a call for action to rethink the way we relate with our immediate surroundings, how we behave, walk, and live our cities and also how we share, communicate and relate with others. On that sense, one of the most positive approaches that can be found at the Triennale is the dispersion of venues and events: they force you to walk in the city, to perceive what is happening in the architectural context in Lisbon, and after that, to question what can we do from our practice.

Discurso Visível: Pelin Tan from Francisca Benitez on Vimeo.

Jose Esparza’s New Publics can be understood as a catalyst for action and thought. Located in a central square of the city, Praça da Figueira and using as platform the Civic Stage designed by Frida Escobedo [which fortunately is static and doesn’t move as planned], it was maybe the most active space we saw at the opening week, and by active I don’t mean only physical activity; I’m referring also about transdisciplinarity and ideas exchange. At this stage it was possible to see a sociologist such as Pelin Tan interacting with local skaters accompanied by Francisca Benítez, providing Portuguese Sign Language (LGP) interpretation for the act; a round table from Princeton University leaving their academic podiums in search for the shadow of a horse to have an interesting conversation about Radical Pedagogies or one of the participants, Daniel Fernández Pascual, talking about the failures to develop his proposed project, The Housing Act.

At this point one is reminded about Manfredo Tafuri’s statement “there is no such thing as criticism, only history.” An event that is held every three years can’t be criticized or judged only in three days. Until now, it hasn’t been possible to evaluate if The Institute Effect will succeed in showing other institutional ways to face the needs of architecture and education nowadays or if the associated research project Radical Pedagogies will have any future influence to change how education and accreditations are managed at the moment and try to engage the participation of students once again, as it happened in the past.

Radical Pedagogies, Princeton University.

Young curators, architects and practitioners are trying to explore the limits of architecture and with failures of course [Who can name here the perfect architecture event? Or the perfect curator?], one of the most valuable things of the Triennale is that it’s giving a place to ask questions. The Crisis Buster grant gave the opportunity to ten young practices to develop their projects in different locations, such as A Cozinha da Casa do Vapor in the South of Lisbon or the project Geniuos Loci, which has invited local restaurants to participate on the program with the aim to improve local business and citizen’s participation. The Associated Projects are also a proper tool not only for young people to participate, but most important, to have a mental map of the concerns in architecture students and practitioners nowadays.

More than sixty years ago, Hans Hollein stated that Alles ist Architektur [everything is architecture] and possibly one of the main problems to understand the Triennale’s approach can be find on this statement. Is science fiction architecture? Is trendy organic food architecture? Is occupying the public space architecture? Is a performance architecture? In the current, convulse, and ever changing times for the architectural practice, it’s understandable that our main concerns are all about the possible responses to what architecture is and what architecture can be. After long conversations and thinking about this issue, maybe our bigger misunderstanding is try to evaluate the results of an event as Close Closer, which is not only about a curatorial statement and it’s not only about the work of a group of young curators that are trying to give to the public a platform to discuss this questions. Maybe the misunderstanding is based on the visitors’ expectations when thinking that one single architecture event can give the answers to this complex set of questions.

So, let’s follow Perec and keep on wondering How? Where? When? Why?

—Ethel Baraona Pohl, editorial team Quaderns.

The Housing Act is Daniel Fernández Pascual participation on Close Closer, and is inspired by a real-life raffle organised in the microstate of Andorra by the owners of an apartment who want to redeem their mortgage. On Domus 971, Fernández Pascual states:

“In times when financial hardship is dramatically jeopardising our basic human needs—the right to housing being one of them—unexpected and creative mechanisms of relief arise. When governments and institutions fail to provide immediate solutions to these problems, unprecedented reactions from untrained actors come into play. Interestingly, this destabilising moment in finance capitalism also underlines its obscure way of working by surfacing our absolute dependency on it—both economically and psychologically. These moments not only have an impact on how we react to this monetary circumstance, but they also have an impact on our basic notion and understanding of capital—shifting our reading of housing and domestic architecture, for example, from a social right to a contemporary form of currency. When faced with situations like these, society as a whole changes, and therefore changes, or moments of relief, rupture and reinvention emerge.”

The Housing Act from Domus 971. Photo by Simona Rota.

Thus, the Open Call is based on this real-life raffle in Andorra, where Sergio Trouillet Alba and Mónica González Lagunilla weren’t able to afford to pay the mortgage for their house. The house was purchased during the real-estate boom in 2007, but since then their financial situation has changed dramatically. The lack of buyers and the tragic fall in property values prohibits them from even thinking of selling it. As a solution for their debt, the couple resisted foreclosure and continued to pay their contractual debt, since unlike the us, there is no deed-inpayment in Andorra. Therefore, they begin to look for feasible alternatives and venture off to launch a legal online raffle, which, through the sale of 10,000 tickets at 70 euros each, will allow them to raise enough money to pay back their loan and award a lucky winner with a debt-free home. In order to inscribe it into a legal framework, they reached out to the Ripoll law firm to develop a new type of contractual agreement that would set up the guidelines to move forward with the raffle and provide a precedent that could be applied to similar cases.

The Housing Act from Domus 971. Photo by Simona Rota.

The Housing Act explores crowdsourcing as a relief strategy to finance the debt of households. As part of a broader project of the New Publics programme at the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, The Housing Act turns the spotlight on the paradoxical concepts inscribed in a contemporary domestic architecture that is so intricately dependent on a global system.

/// This is how it works: any interested homeowners can submit their property. One will be chosen as the prize of a three-month competition, where one lucky winner will receive the complete ownership of a house, with all expenses paid, including property taxes, until the date of the notarial acquisition.
/// All the information to submit your property on The Housing Act

The model was built following Under Tomorrow’s Sky, a think tank held at MU Foundation, Eindhoven in 2012, by Liam Young and the architects from Tomorrows Thoughts Today laying the groundwork for Future Perfect. As part of Close, Closer, the 3rd edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Future Perfect brings together an ensemble of mad scientists, design mavericks, literary astronauts, speculative gamers, visionaries and luminaries to collectively develop the props, spaces, machines, cultures and narratives of a future city, an imaginary urbanism, the landscapes that surround it and the stories it contains.

UNDER TOMORROW’S SKY from stichting MU on Vimeo.

The model will be formed from extraordinarily intricate 3D printed and resin cast buildings, lighting systems, fibre optics, detailed painting and graffiti. It will be a hyper real cityscape that extends traditional architectural models into a world of fiction and popular culture. Miniature model making of this form has a long tradition in science fiction filmmaking. This workshop is an opportunity to learn these techniques from experts in the field and to be part of Triennale’s creative team. Workshop participants earn 8 credits from the Portuguese Architects Guild.

Under Tomorrows Sky movie miniature model installed in MU, Eindhoven. Image by Boudewijn Bollmann

/// ENROLLMENT IS NOW OPEN:
Special price for early bird until 14 July
– 10€ discount

/// Enrol until 21 July
– Complete workshop (2 weeks): 175€
– Only the first week: 100€
– 20% discount for Triennale Friends

More info: edu@trienaldelisboa

Liam Young is an architect who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. Founder of the Tomorrows Thoughts Today think tank, a group whose work explores the possibilities of fantastic, perverse and imaginary urbanisms, he also runs the Unknown Fields Division, a nomadic workshop that holds annual expeditions to the ends of the Earth to investigate unreal and forgotten landscapes, alien terrains and industrial ecologies. Liam’s projects develop fictional speculations as critical instruments to survey the consequences of emerging environmental and technological futures.

/// Header image: Workshop Futuro Perfeito © Susana Gaudêncio

Close, Closer, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale, is initiating a discussion on the future role of contemporary architecture as a wide-ranging spatial practice. We are addressing architecture in its broadest sense: as an agency for the transformation and design of space. Architecture as a living, social, cultural and artistic force that manifests itself in a plurality of outputs that go far beyond traditional construction.

At the London preview on 13th June, curators Beatrice Galilee, Mariana Pestana, Liam Young and participant Daniel Fernandez Pascual, will be sharing their ideas and plans for the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale, wich will take place from 12 September to 15 December 2013.

Close Closer curators. © Lynton Pepper

At the curatorial statement, we can read:

“The third Lisbon Architecture Triennale is being forged at a critical juncture. Far from distancing ourselves from this fact, we have chosen it as one of the main anchors of our curatorial approach, as well as to the challenge we have put forward to our participants and audience. We will even take it one step further. In the current scenario of contracting market economies and scarce resources, we propose to approach architecture as a platform for generating solutions and strategies, fostering debate and participation in designing a shared space and future.

What Close, Closer proposes is a vision of spatial practice as reaction, namely to the current economic and political climate, the social concerns and civic deficit we are facing. Driven by integration, this reaction is grounded in interdisciplinary dialogue and gathers momentum and strength through participation. “

At Close, Closer 2013 LONDON PREVIEW, they will be discussing all the ideas, exhibitions, installations and actions that will make up Close, Closer, the third Lisbon Architecture Triennale when it opens in September this year. The talk is organised by Building Design magazine, and places are free but do reserve your seat: bdrsvp@ubm.com

/// Thursday 13th June, 7pm
KPF London
7a Langley Street, WC2H 9JA

And a reminder that our Début Award for young architects (under 35) is closing on 21 June! A €5,000 prize and a place on our list of 10 honourable mentions is up for grabs. Download the guidelines here.