Expedition’22
07 - 16.07.2022
Expedition is an annual series of exhibitions that explores the unique characteristics and sensibilities of specific sites in nearby or more distant locations, with guests in the areas of architecture, curatorship, landscape design and urban planning from Portugal and beyond. The series is inspired by the history of the building occupied by INSTITUTO, as the word ‘Expedição’ is displayed on the key to the original floor plan from 1955.
The first session of Expedition’22 featured architects Ricardo Oliveira | Associação Humanitária DOMUS | RSO Architecture, Aws Obram | RSO Architecture | MEERU, and Pedro Amaro Santos | MEERU, who helped to develop the RECONSTRUIR project.
The RECONSTRUIR project aims to find sustainable ways to address the issue of housing shortages among refugee families living in Portugal.
RECONSTRUIR is based on three main areas:
— Low-cost construction
Housing is constructed and purchased, offering decent living conditions at a low cost.
— Empowerment of families
Every refugee family is part of the solution: they participate in the design process and help build their homes as volunteers, before purchasing their own homes via a payment plan adjusted to reflect their household income. By empowering families, our aim is to restore their control over their lives and enhance their faith in the future.
— Neighbourly relationships
Families are encouraged to get involved in their new communities through a programme of training and events to develop feelings of neighbourliness and a sense of belonging to the new community.
In the second session of Expedition’22, the collective oitoo led participants on a walk around three barracks in the city, reflecting on the permanence of the buildings and the temporary nature of the purpose for which they were designed.
In every city, there are buildings that were intended to serve a specific purpose but have become less useful over the years.
The focal point for this reflection was the city’s military barracks. These authentic neighbourhoods on an urban scale contain empty spaces that could be used by the public and plenty of built space that has the potential to serve as an incubator for positive processes, yet they are huge, shadowy and burdensome for the institutions to which they belong, with no apparent solution.
Between endless waiting, degradation, abandonment and a sometimes over-ambitious final destiny, are there other ways of doing things?
