Brick by brick: Lisbon Architecture Triennale exhibition lays out the nuances of construction
![Lisbon Building Site Tiago Casanova](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SHw58qdT9AkT83i3vvtoyd-415-80.jpg)
One of the most rewarding moments of the fourth edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale is an exhibition quite simply called 'Building Site'. Curated by André Tavares, who is also the Triennale’s co-curator along with the late Diogo Seixas Lopes, the show explores the politics, economics and labour of making buildings, as well as often neglected aspects of the construction process, such as well-being and time.
The building site is the ‘crucial moment’ when architectural design becomes form, the exhibition argues. For months and sometimes years it is a ‘public performance’, a place teeming with hundreds and thousands of workers, huge cranes and awe-inspiring scaffolding, as well as a place where massive sums of money are invested. All this requires huge human and intellectual effort, and the smallest details can have enormous ramifications.
Stills from a short film entitled 'Choreographies' by Pedro Alonso and Hugo Palmarola, in which US and Soviet cartoons are shown side-by-side
In a section devoted to time, the show looks at how OMA’s famed Casa da Música in Porto was the result of both a hugely ambitious deadline for the concrete outer shell (designed to coincide with Porto’s year as European Capital of Culture in 2001) and major delays. The former was completed in record time, based on an existing design for a single-family home that the architects repurposed. When various bureaucratic and political delays hit the construction programme, architects were able to devise the interiors with the benefit of time. The richer palette of ideas and materials inside the building is the tangible result.
The show persuasively demonstrates that at every stage of the construction process human input is fundamental, even in an age of digital tools and machinery. In a section called 'Communication', a fascinating drawing by David Chipperfield Architects maps out the restoration of the ceiling of the Roman room at the Neues Museum in Berlin. The printed drawing instructs conservators as to how to deal with the building surfaces, but a series of pencil markings added on-site record when the work has actually been carried out.
One of the lighter moments of the show is provided by a film called Choreographies, showing a host of American and Soviet cartoons side-by-side. These feature a panoply of hair-raising construction scenes, where steel cranes whizz various characters on steel beams and concrete panels into the sky. It’s amusing, beautifully timed and set to music, but there is a more serious point being made here, as across the exhibition in general – that building sites are a choreography of moments that come together to make a greater whole. All the various interests at play – commercial, political, social and architectural – require human negotiation, and a delicate dance and equilibrium.
As its name suggests, the displays explore the politics, economics and labour of making buildings, as well as issues of well-being and time during construction works
The building site is the ‘crucial moment’ when architectural design becomes form, the exhibition argues
The displays look at different stages of the construction process, and how human input affects them
A model showing the rich, sophisticated interiors of OMA’s Casa da Música in Porto (1999–2005)
INFORMATION
The Lisbon Architecture Triennale is on view until 11 December 2016. For more information, visit the website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Giovanna Dunmall is a freelance journalist based in London and West Wales who writes about architecture, culture, travel and design for international publications including The National, Wallpaper*, Azure, Detail, Damn, Conde Nast Traveller, AD India, Interior Design, Design Anthology and others. She also does editing, translation and copy writing work for architecture practices, design brands and cultural organisations.
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
The Lantern cultural hub in Detroit by OMA balances ‘light touch’ and ‘dramatic impact’
Library Street Collective’s Lantern, a new cultural hub in Detroit, was designed by OMA New York and is a signature rebuild that makes the most of the site’s existing structures
By Siska Lyssens Published
-
Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens, inviting us into its OMA-designed home
Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens its new, OMA-designed home in the USA
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Factory International by OMA is set to be a moveable feast
Factory International by OMA is a Manchester cultural centre designed to break barriers between audience and performer
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A ‘contemporary palazzo’ by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel rises in Munich
‘Contemporary palazzo’ housing project in Munich is designed by David Chipperfield and Studio Mark Randel
By Ellen Himelfarb Published
-
Buffalo AKG Art Museum by OMA looks to the future
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) is reborn with a striking OMA-designed extension, site-specific installations, and a new focus on the local community
By Amy Serafin Last updated
-
OMA’s The Perigon launches at Miami Beach
We reveal The Perigon at Miami Beach, designed by OMA, with interiors by Tara Bernerd and landscape by Gustafson Porter + Bowman
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated
-
David Chipperfield Architects Berlin opens Kunsthaus Zürich extension
Kunsthaus Zürich extension, designed by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, opens to the public, making the art museum the largest in Switzerland
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
OMA’s KaDeWe in Berlin rethinks shopping
OMA’s KaDeWe department store renovation in Berlin reveals its first phase and reimagines the world of retail
By Yoko Choy Last updated