exchange talks consonance of traditions and common challenges - ed.1

DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA, INGEGNERIA DELLE COSTRUZIONI E AMBIENTE COSTRUITO

The affinities between Portuguese and Italian architects are widely documented yet scattered. The proliferation of post-war travels and shared concerns had a long-standing impact on Portuguese architecture and eventually informed the teaching and research approach purported by the Porto School. Since the 1960s, these exchanges were further supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation travel and study grants. From the 1980s, the inverse has started to take place, with a richer interaction and contamination between the two architectural cultures. Many Italian architects have also travelled and studied in the Porto School, mainly due to the implementation of the Erasmus Programme and the growing international recognition of contemporary Portuguese architecture, particularly through the two Porto School Pritzker laureates Álvaro Siza (1992) and Eduardo Souto Moura (2011). The present research is set on interpretive readings of the present relations between Milan and Porto schools within contemporary architectural debate recognising the communities of practice as an initial operative genealogy.

The main goals are to identify recent Italian practices and examine a series of projects that display affinities of thought and common challenges with Portuguese culture, where each design stage can count to achieve a coherent built and sustainable narrative. These readings aim to empower and disseminate the recognition of architecture’s social role as a fundamental cultural asset in recognising, shaping and qualifying contemporary society´s demands. Two key moments structure and feed the research: the Exchange Talks and a dissemination hub/exhibit at PoliMi.

Students and doctoral students, teaching staff, architects, practitioners

Politecnico di Milano - Aula Castigliano

Director: CRISTINA PALLINI

Co-Director: HELDER FRANCISCO VALENTE CASAL RIBEIRO

DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA, INGEGNERIA DELLE COSTRUZIONI E AMBIENTE COSTRUITO

CRISTINA PALLINI

0223995662

cristina.pallini@polimi.it