9th Sophia Journal International Conference | 22 November | University of Navarra - School of Architecture - E.T.S.A.

Focusing on contemporary photographic and visual practices that explore how architecture, in its broadest sense, can contribute to healing a planet in crisis, the 9th Sophia Journal International Conference - Landscapes of Care. Public housing across multiple geographies: crossing theories and practices on public housing, centered on a dynamic reading of the city that is conditional and conditioned by housing typology. Combining architecture, public housing, habitat, and urban planning, we are presenting works that explore an interpretative narrative about housing and those who live in it, pilot projects with communities of practice capable of generating strategic visions about the possible future of city and territory, housing and the lives it (trans)forms, in this ontological relationship between the Man and house.

The event comprises a program that combines live and video-conferencing sessions, which will be broadcast online and allow a large audience to participate. The program features a rich and diverse set of activities, including:

• Round-tables dedicated to specific topics, where discussions revolve around theoretical work, records of experiences in social housing programs, and visual essays on initiatives or pilot programs in public housing, where photography, graphic recording, testimony, and the documentary are present in a significant way and allow adding a differentiating layer for its understanding and recording.

• The launch of the new Cycle for Sophia Journal "Landscapes of Repair” and its new call Sophia Journal, Vol. 10. “The Role of Photography and Film in Documenting the Legacy of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Spaces”

• Live visits and social events in Navarra

The 9th Sophia Journal International Conference constitutes an important forum for fostering reflection and debate within the realms of architecture, photography and image making centered on a dynamic reading of the city that is conditional and conditioned by housing typology.

The organizing committee extends its gratitude to all who will be attending and participating in this 9th Sophia Journal International Conference, which has been an integral part of our academic community for over eight years and has played a significant role in establishing an international network focused on the intersection of Photography and Architecture.

Program and Book of abstracts

• Program

• Book of abstracts

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PROGRAM

[10:00] Opening remarks 
Carlos Naya (ETSA-UN) – Director of ETSA

Pedro Leão Neto (FA-UP) – Conference Coordinator and Sophia Journal Editor-in-chief

Open Call - Sophia Journal Vol.10 No. 1 “Landscapes of Repair: The Role of Photography and Film in Documenting the Legacy of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Spaces”
Cristina Gaston Guirão (ETSAB)

[10h30] Panel #1 – Resonances
Moderated by Paz Nuñez Martí (UAH-ETSAM)

Reflections on the impact of cooperation and community participation in housing contexts.

This panel examines the crucial role of community and participatory practices in the development of housing and urban environments. Discussions will focus on the impact of collective efforts and the transformative power of cooperation in creating sustainable, socially engaged housing systems. The panel emphasizes the significance of the image, not only as a form of documentation but as a critical tool for revealing and interrogating cooperative housing practices. Images become instruments that go beyond simple representation, providing a lens through which the impact of community-driven interventions can be better understood.

Possible discussion themes:

• The role of cooperative systems in addressing housing crises;

• The significance of self-management and collective ownership in creating resilient communities;

• How community-driven projects redefine architectural practices and urban planning;

Revitalizing Housing: Trajectories of Cooperative Systems
Luisa Frigolett

In today's era of crisis—disruptive, turbulent, and fraught with challenges (Haraway, 2022)—housing cooperatives have re-emerged as a resilient network. These dynamic systems challenge dominant narratives surrounding housing and urban production, offering alternatives through innovative social technologies. Housing cooperatives serve as genuine collaborative and supportive entities for habitat generation, forming a complex assemblage of interrelated components.

This essay explores the vital and cyclical nature of housing cooperatives, viewing them as open systems capable of establishing complex relationships that transcend the built environment. It highlights the significance of self-management and community-led construction as central to the cooperative model. The Mutual Aid Housing Cooperatives developed in Uruguay since 1968 exemplify comprehensive and sustainable solutions to housing challenges. Supported by the National Housing Law of 1968, these cooperatives have fostered an alternative housing system that integrates environmental considerations and promotes cross-sector collaboration between communities and the State.

The concept of vitality in cooperativism, as addressed in this essay, aligns with the organic and biological perspectives on perception and world-building proposed by scholars such as John Turner, Donella Meadows, and Donna Haraway. The text underscores the critical role of collective ownership in these cooperatives, both as a safeguard against real estate speculation and as a symbol of popular resistance. It further highlights the importance of community practices and active participation in the construction and management of housing as fundamental pillars for sustaining the vitality and resilience of the cooperative model.

Keywords: Systems, Cooperative housing, Collective housing, Habitat production, Communities.

Spatial Interventions in Vulnerable Territories: The 'Bairros Saudáveis' Case
Leonardo Ramirez/ Rita Ochoa

The “Bairros Saudáveis” (Healthy Neighborhoods) programme in Portugal emerged in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its aim was to improve health conditions and quality of life in vulnerable territories through small, bottom-up interventions. A key condition for these interventions was the formation of partnerships between associations, NGOs, residents, and public entities. This article examines the relationships between the quality of spaces in vulnerable territories and participatory and/or bottom-up public policies, using “Bairros Saudáveis” (BS) as a case study. The research involves a selection of projects developed within the BS programme, combining information obtained from interviews with individuals and entities involved in these projects and analysing official project documents.

The objectives of the study are to contextualize and understand the BS programme within the social and public health crises it coincided with; examine how the themes of "space" and "architecture" were addressed by the programme and its proposed projects; verify the programme’s adherence to participatory principles; and identify good practices for future similar actions or new editions of the programme. Additionally, this study aims to contribute to a broader reflection on the state of participatory practices in architecture within the Portuguese context. It seeks to understand whether these practices are helping to mitigate socio-economic-cultural problems and improve the quality of life in marginalized contexts.

Methodologically, the paper explores the official communication channels of the BS programme; key primary and secondary sources related to the theme; interviews with actors involved in the selected case studies, as well as privileged observers; and in situ participatory observation. We acknowledge the challenge of identifying concrete outcomes from an unfinished public policy, as some projects remain incomplete. Therefore, we present this as a work in progress, aimed at promoting relevant and necessary debate both within and outside the academic sphere.

In conclusion, this study highlights numerous deficiencies in many Portuguese housing contexts, whether geographically peripheral or socially excluded in urban centres. The pandemic exacerbated social and territorial inequality in Portugal, leading to problems that directly impact the quality of life for marginalised populations. The cases analysed also underscore the potential of architecture and spatial interventions as strategies for social transformation.

Key-words: Bairros saudáveis, Participatory processes in architecture, Vulnerable territories, Public policies, Social role of the architect

The Impact of Care: Expanding Architectural Education through Community Design-Build
James Doerfler

The influence of community-centred design and design-build projects on architectural education has increased in the last decade. Including student-led community engaged projects in the curriculum of architecture schools has shaped architectural education and influenced the profession. These projects provide a service to communities or non-profit organisations in need of design solutions. Engaging social responsibility and public interest design represents an ideological shift in the way that architecture schools are approaching education. There is often an intersection of public interest design and design-build in these projects. This paper explores the question, can an academic community-based design-build project provide a new transitional housing prototype for the homeless? And, do these projects fulfil the needs of students to provide effective learning experiences for promoting their desire to promote communities they serve?

Architecture schools provide learning experiences through various initiatives. For example, Yale University's “The Yale Building Project,”1 Auburn University's “Rural Studio”2 and University of Kansas “Studio 804”3 have had long-running public interest design studios. These design-build initiatives educate students outside the typical design studio. This article will provide an overview of public interest and design-build education in the United States to provide context for introducing this into the curriculum at an Australian university.

The design-build studio is a partnership between the shelter for homeless men, that focuses on the design and fabrication of a prototype house. This transdisciplinary project was accomplished in design studio and workshop sessions that designed, documented, and built an Independent Living Unit (ILU) and created a micro-village of seven ILUs. This prototype has an extensive impact through it providing a new typology for transitional homeless accommodation and jobs in the region.

Keywords: Design-build, community-engaged, Architectural education, Prefabrication, Homelessness

Collective Housing by Collective Practice: The Inclined Condominium in Bergamo
Loris L. Perillo/ Lorenzo de Pascale/ Federica Mambrini [Visual Essay]

In 1972 Bergamo municipality identified new areas within the city's fabric to build public housing developments. In one of these areas a few years later was built a housing project called Terrazze Fiorite (Flower Terraces). The intervention was designed by four architects who in those years had co-signed several significant works in the city: W. Barbero, B. Ciagà, G. Gambirasio and G. Zenoni. These architects during the 1960s and 1970s had worked side by side as a group. Terrazze Fiorite is the result of this kind of collaboration. The housing intervention draws a new portion of the city through a low-rise, high-intensity settlement model with L-shape housing units, arranged around patios. The apparent banality of the intervention, however, conceals an interesting spatial expedient: the settlement pattern is placed on an artificial sloping plane obtained by a continuous and slight staggering of houses arranged one after the other. The slope becomes an opportunity to develop a landscape of uninterrupted pedestrian paths characterized by continuous variations, thanks to excavations that host lush gardens and squares or flat areas near the house entrances. A complex scenery to allow inhabitants a neighborhood sociability in different degrees, where everyone is free to live the space without any kind of barriers. The essay aims to offer, through worlds and original photographs, a point of view on this housing project highlighting the spatial links established among citizens, buildings, landscape and city.

Keywords : built landscape, low-rise housing, courtyard, collective practice

[11h30 - 12h:00] | Roundtable discussion

[12:00] INVITED SPEAKER - Iñaki Bergera

[14h00] Panel #2 – Trans-Formations
Moderated by Maria Neto (UBI-FAUP)

Changes and interventions in vulnerable and hybrid territories

Overview: This panel addresses the complexities of designing and transforming hybrid and vulnerable territories. The papers and visual essays investigate how architecture responds to cultural, social, and environmental shifts, highlighting the necessity for innovative and context-sensitive approaches. Urban and hybrid landscapes are shaped and represented through photography and other visual media. In this context, the image plays a crucial role in capturing territorial transformations and the intricacies of spaces that defy modernist norms. The works utilize photography as a means to comprehend and convey the subtleties of contemporary urban interventions, offering a profound understanding of the interplay between the built environment and the cultural and social forces that shape it.

Possible discussion themes:

• How hybrid territories challenge and redefine architectural norms;

• The intersection of traditional and modern approaches in urban planning;

• The impact of cultural and social memory on housing and territorial transformations;

Territory as Threshold: Non-Modern Landscapes
Luís Ginja

French philosopher Bruno Latour (1947-2022) proposed an idea in his 1991 book "We Have Never Been Modern" that challenges the age-old notion of a clear distinction between Nature and culture or Man and object. According to Latour, the traditional attempts to separate the concept from its counterpart have failed. Instead, he argues that these concepts are interconnected and cannot be treated as separate entities. This principle can be applied to contemporary urban areas and the surrounding region, where the borders between the city and Nature are becoming increasingly blurred. Design plays a crucial role in conscious thinking and addressing the challenges of using natural resources, their impact on sustainability, and how we interconnect with sites and the Land.

Furthermore, the relationship between urban areas and Nature is a critical issue that demands attention. These challenges are crucial for considering cities and landscapes and addressing them through design in terms of the territory. This act of design should tend towards a more holistic and integrated vision, which aligns with contemporary trends in various areas through a shift towards city projects that are less and less disruptive to the world. The conventional view of cities and Nature as separate entities is shifting towards an integrated perspective.

This text deals with the territory as an agent of syntropy, as a link between the landscape and the city. The goal is to uncover how the relationship between the body and the territory can generate synergy in the system and create symbiotic relationships between the various parts involved. To achieve this, we will examine the available literature, starting from the central idea that we have never been modern. With this objective in mind, we will highlight the common areas to revisit the concept of assemblage. As a point of comparison, it is vital to closely examine Frank Lloyd Wright's almost century-old text, The Disappearing City from 1932, and determine which aspects of his utopian vision remain relevant today. Regarding that text, Kenneth Frampton (b. 1930) highlights gradually erasing the distinction between the countryside and the city, like the ideology of the Communist Manifesto of 1872.

Keywords: Modern, Territory, Landscape, City, Design

Hybrid Landscapes in the Pearl River Delta: Macau Modern Housing
Niccolò Arnaldo Galliano/ Daniela Arnaut/ Ana Tostões

The present paper contemplates the ground of research on emerging forms of inhabiting spaces in contemporary urban territories, with a precise focus on Macau’s 1960s housing production.

In order to settle a comprehensive understanding about inaugural statements of architectural modernity, in the field of modern housing, built in Pearl River Delta’s region as a hybrid interpretation of Modern Movement’s ideas in colonial Asian territory, this proposal aims to analyse and present a set of residential buildings and projects that show adaptations of Modern approaches to different cultures, climate, and environment.

The achievement of such goals is to be developed through a comparative analysis, based on archival research and a photographic survey, in order to derive, on one hand, an amplitude equation of adopted materialised theoretical matrix (forms, urban scales); and on the other hand, to identify variations between housing typologies’ solutions, collective spaces, spatial distributions and technical systems (façade, cross-ventilation).

This classification needs to consider contextual factors, identify problematics and potentialities, and recognise architectural roles within Macau’s generational urban growth.

Portuguese and local pioneers in Macau, such as Manuel Vicente, Raul Chorão Ramalho and José Maneiras, have demonstrated how the modern conception could be interpreted, understood, and enriched in terms of content. They were able to face and respond to diverse physical and social conditions, experimenting innovative solutions which remain currently interesting and valid.

This paper aims to document and value public housing works of other seas that, due to a tide of redevelopment guided by high commercial profit which seems not to consider the past, have not been conserved or valorised, and today may disappear. The landscape of care under analysis is part of the architectural scenario endangered of fade over time; his interaction with public interest and memory deserves further consideration.

Keywords: Housing, Modern Architecture, Heritage, Landscap, Urban Morphology

Errante: Contemporary Heuristic Reflections on Housing (Malagueira, Marselha, La Borda)
Sérgio Miguel Magalhães

This reflexion makes visible the relationships between humans and the production of the built environment, proposing an exploration of the behavioural space between two collaborative narratives: the disciplinary and the non-disciplinary. The aim is to examine the position of architects and their practices in addressing the socio-environmental crisis facing the planet.

Questioning architecture predominantly through a disciplinary lens limits the integration of practices that fall outside dominant narratives. In pedagogical frameworks, it is crucial to venture beyond these boundaries and question how to learn from divergent practices that inherently function as educational tools. Non-disciplinarily, by wandering about how bodies are perceived in its social context, we must understand how these devices work and unmistakably broaden the field of architecture from multimodal design practices.

However, divergent methods alone are insufficient for professionals to effectively engage with communities in addressing contemporary issues within the built environment due to formal constraints. This inadequacy suggests the emergence of an ideo-cultural crisis alongside the socio-environmental one, underscoring the urgent need to resolve a persistent educational paradox regarding the adequacy between disciplinary and non-disciplinary approaches.

Through the analysis of three cases (Unité, Malagueira, and La Borda), the article identifies modus that operate both within and outside dominant narratives, viewing complex scenarios as catalysts for simpler, inclusive, and sustainable heuristic decisions.

Positioned as a proposal for achieving a viable educational landscape (fostering sustainable social progression through heuristic reflections on robust mechanisms of loss as constructive actions), the article examines the significance of divergent project activities in steering architecture towards a more empathetic framework for the unbiased education of architects.

Keywords: Errante, Heuristic, Multimodal, Autonomy, Power

Public Housing from Within: Childhood Memories as a Landscape of Care
Chloé Darmon [Visual Essay]

Over the course of several family migrations, the grey Paris region became the meeting place for my parents. The first ten years of my life were spent in public housing, which became the place where our little family lived, fragmented across the country. From 1997 onwards, we lived in this flat in the centre of a suburban town. A very small town, so close to Paris-Capitale, but so far away at the same time. Public housing was one of the only solutions for young parents with a young daughter, then two from January 2000. All the memories of childhood, of daily life and care, of children's games and school, come from this flat in this building. Strangely enough, it is a social housing block, but it wasn't built away from the centre; it was built around the centre, around the Place du Marché, next to the secondary school and the primary school, next to the small Municipal Theatre. Which is strange, because many of the public housing blocks in this area are isolated from the basic facilities needed to maintain daily life - particularly when it comes to looking after children. The building and flat of my childhood were successful experiments, both architecturally and urbanistically.

Paradoxically, there is little or no information about the architect, the date of construction or the impact of this restructuring of the Place du Marché. Despite this urban 'success', there was a certain melancholy when we came back from holiday, even if we were lucky enough to be able to go away in the summer, unlike some of my friends and classmates. This melancholy perhaps comes from the generic nature of the place, all these towns look the same and the families from regional migrations are totally uprooted. We miss the south, the Mediterranean sea and the sun, as if they've been torn away from us, and we have to gravitate around Paris, not because we have any particular attachment to the place, but because the workers in the capital need people to keep these dormitory towns going (social workers, policemen, nursery school teachers, etc.), the work of caring for and maintaining the lives of the workers rests on those who keep these satellite towns going. Through my personal archives, I revisit this scenario, which forms an important part of my development, and I find photographs that represent our life there.

And in this album, which I take with me wherever I go, I find my first photographs, imperfect perhaps, but already at the age of 7 (in February 2004), connoting a sensitivity for the details of the beauty of everyday life, the importance of the sun reflecting on the architecture, the presence of plants in the house, the views and the rain that glistens. The photographs presented in this visual essay reflect a first relationship with photography and the transition between being object/subject, being photographed/photographing, in a family where amateur photography has always been important. In these personal/private archives, we can encounter treasures that make us reflect on the landscapes of care and on public housing as a catalyst of history and memory.

Keywords: Public housing, Childhood memories, Landscapes of care, Urban architecture, Personal archives

[15h00 - 15h30] | Roundtable discussion

[15h30] INVITED SPEAKER – Carlos Canovas

[16h30] Panel #3 – Cycles
Moderated by Jorge Tárrago Mingo (ETSAUN)

Urban flows and the relationship between the right to the city and collective memories

This panel examines the cyclical nature of urban flows and the role of collective memories in shaping the urban landscape. The theoretical papers and visual essays address the complexities of urban regeneration, the right to the city, and the social dynamics inherent in architecture. In this context, the image serves as a form of dialogue, linking past and present by documenting and critiquing urban transformations. The contributions highlight how collective memories and urban rights are interwoven, shaping the urban environment and underscoring the importance of preserving and reimagining urban narratives through the powerful medium of the image.

Possible discussion themes:

• The relationship between urban regeneration and the right to the city.

• The role of collective memories in shaping and preserving urban identities.

• How photography can be used as a tool to document and critique architectural and social phenomena.

Fenix architecture: Can a new and youth liveability for inner areas be based on the third and fourth-age community facilities?
Frederica Serra

The article takes its cue from the population ageing phenomenon in Italy, focusing on the country's inner and marginal areas. These areas, which cover nearly 60% of the national territory, are facing significant challenges due to depopulation and the migration of young people to cities, leading to their marginalisation and reduced access to essential services. However, in recent decades, these regions have been revaluated, viewing them not only as a problem but also as an opportunity for development and regeneration.

The article explores how population ageing, traditionally seen as a challenge, can be transformed into a resource for the revitalization of inner areas. By analysing institutional policies such as the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI) and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), the text emphasises the importance of attracting new communities, including younger generations, to revitalize these territories. In fact, ageing can become a development factor, especially when combined with strategic planning and targeted architectural design projects, as illustrated by the case of Castel del Giudice, a small village in Molise that has managed to turn population ageing into an opportunity for economic and social growth.

The case study of Castel del Giudice demonstrates how an innovative approach to managing welfare services, particularly for the elderly, can help to reverse the depopulation trend and create new job opportunities for young people. Through the establishment of an assisted living facility and other community initiatives, the village has not only improved the quality of life for the elderly but also generated economic activity that has attracted new families to the area. This example shows how inner areas can become laboratories for good practices and social innovation if adequately supported by targeted policies and investments.

In conclusion, the article argues that population ageing in Italian inner areas should not be seen merely as a problem to be addressed, but as an opportunity to stimulate sustainable and inclusive development. Through targeted interventions that promote proximity welfare and community cohesion, it is possible to create new forms of liveability that can attract both young and old, contributing to the revival of territories currently considered fragile. Ageing, therefore, can become a catalyst for the revitalization of inner areas, transforming their fragility into a driving force for future development.

Key-words: Territorial resilience, inner areas, multigenerational community

Right to the City (photo)voices: participatory photography with children in Greater Lisbon
Rosa Arma/ Camila Andrade dos Santos

The study “Voices of the Right to the City” consists of two participatory photography actions conducted in 2018 and 2021 by the Socio-Territorial, Urban and Local Action Studies Group (GESTUAL). These actions involved children of African origin and Roma ethnicity from the self-produced neighbourhood Bairro da Torre in Greater Lisbon, who experienced a rehousing process that began in 2007 and concluded in 2023. Through a description and comparative analysis of the two actions and the data collected and by focusing on the neighbourhoods, housing and play spaces, we aim here to discuss the participant’ perceptions of changes in the places of their everyday lives before and after the rehousing process. Data collected includes the children’s own photographs which have been obtained through photovoices; and interviews about these photographs which were conducted through photo-elicitation. We also seek to reflect on the methodology of participatory photography as a research tool. We argue that participatory photography can foster dialogue between researchers and research subjects, in our case children, offering an opportunity for the collective construction of knowledge. The results of this research highlight the urgent need to (re)think and (re)build cities in a way that ensures the voices of children and other vulnerable groups are heard and considered, thereby contributing to a just transformation of both the city and the society as a whole.

Key-words: Participatory photography, Children, Right to the city, Greater Lisbon.

Differentiated Inhabitation of 'Auteur Architecture': Photographing Álvaro Siza’s Bouça Housing Estate
Eduardo Ascensão/ Marta Machado/ Paulo Catrica/ Ana Catarina Costa

This paper explores the different ways residents of famous buildings experience the architecture they live in. We aim at an architectural photography which seeks to portray architecture not as a visual phenomenon but rather a lived one. We have photographed residents of the Bouça housing estate in Porto, Portugal, designed in the 1970s by Pritzker Prize winning Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza to house the urban poor after the 1974 revolution. The estate has since become an architectural icon and is currently undergoing gentrification by architects, designers and artists who are drawn to the appeal of ‘auteur architecture’. The differences in inhabitation between the original residents and the recent ones pertain to a complex yet dualistic stance between two distinct social classes on what architecture is and what it means, one that also raises the issue of housing for the urban poor becoming fashionable. We read such tensions while tracing back to Siza's early belief in a classless society, which later evolved into the belief in an ‘interclassist city’.

Keywords: Architectural photography, Inhabitation, Auteur architecture, Social class tensions, Gentrification

The Right Distance: Photographing the Neighbourhoods Built Under the Carnation Revolution
Ana Catarina Costa/ Francisco Ascensão [Visual Essay]

In the preface to his book Why people photograph, Robert Adams mentions a recurring idea in his writings: “the effort we all make, photographers and nonphotographers, to affirm life without lying about it”. This was the challenge for visiting today the neighbourhoods built under SAAL, a housing program implemented during the Portuguese revolutionary period that sought to improve the housing conditions of the poorest classes based on a collective effort and the aspiration for a more equitable life for all.

Photographing the neighbourhoods built under the Carnation Revolution required the openness to understand the life and the different fates that each neighbourhood has had, almost 50 years on since the 25th of April, in an effort to escape an outdated and nostalgic/melancholic gaze linked to the moment of its conception. Besides trying to understand the characteristics of the neighbourhoods in terms of its integrity, community life, conservation and ownership, this work also required a willingness to establish a link to affections, contributing to the multiplication of hypotheses in the construction of an imaginary, where ideas of time, restriction and freedom fit in. The construction of a dialog is fundamental for promoting an encounter, a negotiated proximity between the photographer and the depicted objects, similar to what John Berger suggests about the act of painting. Perhaps this negotiation, or the search for the right distance, can be an approach to the affirmation of life.

Keywords: SAAL, housing, documentary photography, architecture and photography, reality

Housing the Basque Country: Photography of the Collective Space
Asier Santas Torres/ Luis Suárez Mansilla/ Luis Asín Lapique [Visual Essay]

In 2018, Housing the Basque Country (HBC) opened in Bilbao. The exhibition sought to expose the results of the housing policy achieved by the Basque Regional Government in the last three decades. HBC aimed to explain the different stories generated around public housing since this subject is, without a doubt, one of those that brings together the most realities around it: from politics to the architectural, going through the economic or productive, the sociological, historical and legal; setting at the center the inhabitant.

From the exhibition point of view, HBC started with the difficulty of highlighting for a non-professional audience a theme limited both by its geographical location and by its distance from spectacular architecture. It was decided to compile a selection of thirty projects that served to explain the evolution of public housing, taking into account criteria such as their date of completion, geographical distribution, location in cities or small towns, typological advances, and aesthetic values. But the projects were also selected for their potential to capture something that seemed essential to incorporate into the exhibition: the human dimension.

Thus, and during several trips to the thirty projects, it was possible to compile a valuable set of visual documents containing the "vital substance" that had grown in those environments. Various photographs in different formats explained aspects such as the current state of these residential complexes, their urban life, the physical traces of time, the dialogue with nature, the validity or expiration of their architecture and urban planning, and their social content. For better or for worse, the aim of that work was not to achieve an aesthetically striking photographic collection, but rather to bear witness to the literal and direct presentation of the urban - and therefore human - result in force in those inhabited environments.

Keywords: Public housing, Collective spaces, Urban life, Human dimension, Architectural evolution

[17h45 - 18h15] | Roundtable discussion

[18h15] INVITED SPEAKER – Tatiana Bilbao

OPEN CALL | LANDSCAPES OF REPAIR: THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM IN DOCUMENTING THE LEGACY OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE AND PUBLIC SPACES

ourth thematic cycle "Landscapes of Repair"

Guest Editor
Félix Solaguren

Editors
Cristina Gaston Guirão, Jaime Ferrer, LLuís Angel Domínguez, Maria Neto, Andrea Parga

Editorial Collaborator
Judit Taberna Torres

Abstract deadline: 31 December 2024
Deadline for 1st manuscript: 11 March 2025

Deadline for presentation at the conference:

International Conference (dtbc): 

Deadline for 3rd Manuscript (Journal):

Publication date (tbc): by December 2025

Sophia Journal is currently accepting submissions for its fourth thematic cycle “Landscapes of Repair”, encouraging a humanist approach to urban transformation that transcends purely economic considerations. By exploring the impactful realms of photography, film, and various visual practices, we aim to highlight their significant contributions to the discourse surrounding architectural programs. Our goal is to draw urgent attention to the necessity of repairing our fractured planet. In doing so, we also seek to address and connect the multitude of challenges that contemporary cities and territories around the world are grappling with. These visual mediums not only document but also critically engage with the diverse and complex issues of our time, offering a unique perspective on urban and environmental crises. Through this lens, we hope to foster a deeper understanding and inspire actionable solutions to the pressing problems facing our global communities.

Call for Submissions – The Role of Photography and Film in Documenting the Legacy of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Spaces

In this call for papers and visual essays of Sophia Journal Vol.10 No. 1 “Landscapes of Repair: The Role of Photography and Film in Documenting the Legacy of Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Spaces”, – we invite theoretical and field work using photographic and visual practices to explore and document both Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Space infrastructure. The call aims to understand and document architecture, building, city and territory as living and inclusive organisms, focused on recent past and present positive experiences that have shaped the quality of urban space, as well as on heritage resources for global sustainability.

All this means, on the one hand, to comprehend the relationship between culture and space, within the context of Modern Architecture heritage preservation, as it belongs to a recent past that has not yet been sufficiently recognised by the authorities, scholars and general public. On the other hand, to explore how culture, beliefs, behaviours, and practices, interact with and shape the physical environment of different territories and their architectures, cities and landscapes, as well as to acknowledge contemporary discourses and usages of landscape concepts.

Our objectives are to explore the ways in which photography and film can be used as meaningful instruments of research into the socioeconomic, political, historical, technical and ecological dimensions of both modern and contemporary architecture and public spaces infrastructure for our cities and territories. This means, on the one hand, a more encompassing photography documentary research and practice able to integrate the diverse modes which can be found in many documentary projects, as referred by Marion Gautreau and Jean Kempf[1]: (i) scientific, or conversely, ideological reference; (ii) artistic form as an access to the complexities of the real world; (iii) the documentary as enabling an affirmation of identity or the retrieval of memory.

On the other hand, integrating into the research material processes[2] where photography is explored as a significant inquiry tool for critical and innovative views on architecture and urban transformation in their expanded fields and contextualized by larger systems: cultural, political, artistic, technical, and historical dimensions. This entails, innovative documentation or archival projects exploring discursive forms of presentation and visual constructs, articles and research papers discussing the rich spectrum of techniques and visual strategies employed in environmental discussions.

As a result, we are very much interested in the research focused on exploring how visual constructs, namely photography and film, may set forward the idea of an architecture, changing our on-site perception and even turning it into a projected vision in space, as well as identifying, recording and ‘unlocking’ sites of transformation – i.e. buildings and places which are undergoing, or will undergo, a process of renewal. Another example of our interests is the diachronic studies of urban environments focused on patterns of activities and phenomena aiming at sequentially researching social change, and physical and cultural expressions that may occur during different time lapses[3].

The overall concern is to study and give visibility to photography and film practices comprehending architecture outside the dominant narratives and to call attention to both Modern and Contemporary Architecture and Public Spaces. Namely to investigate the ways in which photography and film serve as meaningful instruments of research into the socioeconomic, political, historical, technical and ecological dimensions of Architecture and Landscape.

Submission instructions

To submit your abstract proposal, please send a 500-word text (including references and a maximum of five images) and a short bio for each author (up to 70 words each) by the 31st of December, 2024.

Submission of abstracts is done through our OJS platform by registering and submitting at: https://www.up.pt/revistas/index.php/sophia/index    

Selected authors will be notified by the 11 of January 2025 and will benefit from Sophia´s Editorial orientation and instructions in order to deliver a full paper (between 3000 to 6000 words) or a visual essay (length between 6 to 8 pages, plus text between 750 to 1500 words) by the 11 of March 2025. 

Authors who have not sent in this first stage their abstract can still send the full manuscript until the 11 of March 2025. 

Please note that all theoretical papers will be subject to blind peer review. The other modalities of submissions we publish (visual essays, interviews, and critical reviews) are subjected to peer review.                                                                      

Acceptance of an abstract in any of these modalities does not guarantee publication.