Tanto Mar

Exhibition

Centro Cultural de Belém, Garagem Sul, Lisboa, Portugal

The exhibition made it possible to start recognising architectural and social planning practices carried out by Portuguese people outside Portugal. The theme of emigration at the base of the project reinforced the pertinence of recording, in the present, the network for sharing knowledge, methodologies and work processes that began. By systematising the information, a common core of particular relevance was found around what is understood to be called social architecture: professional architecture and planning practices that are based on participatory or self-construction processes, interventions in disaster contexts or based on projects and programs that have a strong social impact in improving local contexts. Based on these work processes and in the context of each project, the thirty-three works on display – until then virtually unknown in our country – were presented in five groups – Emergency, Scarcity, Urban, Informal and Formal – in a set of inter-generational , multidisciplinary and great geographic diversity.

Exhibiting these practices and the intersection of different processes and approaches aimed to reposition architecture, in Portugal, as a structuring activity in the transformation and improvement of the living conditions of the population.

Tanto Mar: Portugueses Fora de Portugal was the result of a series of events, such as open calls, conferences or an online data portal, which promoted a discussion focused on the theme of architecture, design and urbanism as instruments of social transformation. Many questions arose during this process: Is there a common identity? If so, how is it characterized in such varied conditions? What impact did European integration or cultural exchange programs have on the definition or propensity for this type of reality? What is the relevance of the period of academic training, the social context of origin, the Portuguese language or current conditions in the country, in choosing this type of spatial practice?

The Tanto Mar website is online. This record will allow others to find avenues of investigation, but also to share information and spatial practices useful for the present, which will certainly find fertile ground in Portuguese reality.