BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2016 - NATIONAL PARTICIPATION OF PORTUGAL

Siza's visits and the neighbours are now depicted in photos and videos, presented on the outside and inside of the Portuguese Pavilion respectively.

These are real everyday life documents, only possible due to the residents’ goodwill, to whom the project team thanks the involvement.

Architectural documents were granted by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), one of the main institutional partners, that holds part of the Alvaro Siza Archives.

In February 2016, visiting different local residents of Campo di Marte, Siza talked, smoked and toasted with them during a lively afternoon of conviviality.

In Schlesisches Strasse, Alvaro Siza designed a residential building of seven floors, and learning from the surrounding architectural diversity he transformed the corner into a “monumental” point.

The major social and urban changes which took place in the neighbourhoods are shared by many other European cities: processes like immigration, ghettoization, gentrification and touristification.

After visiting the neighbourhood and listening to the inhabitants, Siza designed the first construction phase in the district’s south area: the Punt Komma blocks, carried out between 1986 and 1989.

In March 2016 Álvaro Siza returned to Schilderswijk, visiting families who have settled there for the past 25 years, talking and drinking the inevitable Rize tea served by affable Turkish women.

In 1975, two elongated buildings were built at Bairro da Bouça, with four floors (2 duplex apartments), with direct entrances from the street or from a high gallery.

For twenty years the neighbourhood was progressively degrading, until the residents’ association, with another housing cooperative, proposed the municipality to complete the project by Álvaro Siza.

In 2016, a decade after the quarter conclusion, Siza visited the area and got inside of the residents’ houses, realizing how they lived in them. There he met again some of the first inhabitants.

Álvaro Siza also knew the outcome of the gentrification process, meeting young architects, designers and artists who became the owners of the houses placed on the market by the housing cooperative.

Álvaro Siza arrived at Giudecca by vaporetto, here accompanied by Roberto Cremascoli.

The arrival of the Portuguese architect was one of the high moments of the opening, together with the Prime Minister of Portugal (on the left).

Álvaro Siza introduced the guests and guided them through the exhibition.

La Tavolata gathered the residents of Campo di Marte, as well as Italian and Portuguese artistic and political public figures, journalists and many more, celebrating neighbourhood.

The graffitis on the walls of the construction site show how the population was longing for the completion of the building.

These visual documents were produced by a qualified multidisciplinary team, with the support of the Media partners SIC/Expresso (Portugal).