The exhibition Related Paths traces the contours of an idea that has grown from a fleeting conversation into a tangible presence within the multifunction room of the Portuguese Pavilion at the Osaka Expo 2025. This installation, one fragment of a three-part event, sits alongside a symposium and a parallel exhibition at the Nipponbashi House also in Osaka. Together, they form a constellation and a possibility for encounters, each illuminating the work of four Lisbon-based architects: Ricardo Carvalho, Inês Lobo, Ricardo Bak Gordon, and Manuel Aires Mateus. Their voices and their work will resonate through video projections in the exhibition and will unfold even further in the symposium, where they will speak directly to those gathered.
The idea of this exhibition took root two years ago at Ricardo Carvalho’s office in Lisbon. Ricardo, a rigorous teacher from my undergraduate days at the Departamento de Arquitetura da Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa (Da/UAL), helped shape my understanding of what architecture is; even to this day, his work is a reference to me. So too did Manuel Aires Mateus and Francisco Aires Mateus, also teachers from that time, whose lessons linger in how I approach space. Over coffee, Ricardo’s curiosity about Japan surfaced—an offhand remark that lodged itself in my mind. In our discussion, we realised that we could bring Portuguese architecture to Japan, in a form of a lecture. From that casual talk, a plan was designed that only crystallised as the Osaka Expo 2025 loomed closer. What began as an intent became a collaborative endeavour, drawing in people from Portugal and Japan to bridge two architectural worlds.
The installation Related Paths is a deliberate act of containment. Within the Pavilion’s multifunction room, three dark steel frames of good proportion and size were designed, each holding a black PVC screen that allows for back projection. These screens are positioned in an invisible curve against the room’s fixed curved screen, carving out an invisible central void, negating the surroundings—a space of focus where visitors are drawn inward. Cables trail openly from the projectors in to the media room, a visible network of power and sound that rejects concealment. This is not a sanitised display but a raw, almost sculptural intervention, akin to a video art installation.
The screen’s expression, a flat board, as thin as possible, reassembles the verticality of Richard Serra’s work. Its assemblage and disassemble need to be quic k, done within the night between other events that will happen in the same room. One screen offers interviews, a door to the architects’ thoughts for a more generalised Japanese audience; the others present their most recent work, some even under construction, a snapshot of their current preoccupations and interests, whatever they are currently exploring.
House in Monsaraz
Faced with the boundless extents of the Alqueva lake, the house requires a centre: a protected courtyard embracing the water. It uses the terrain to cast a dome that covers the social areas and is the life centre of the house. An inverted dome intersects it and creates an opening that lights the space, shaping its precise geometry and limits. The bedrooms open onto circular patios. Amid a wide natural landscape, the scale of the house is that of the patios and superior dome. They are the sole visible elements, painted in radiant white.
House in Melides
One single material, handmade bric k, in continuity with the earth, defines the house. This local material imbues the house with a natural relation to the landscape. The bricks shape a succession of spaces that support diverse usages. living spaces. The interior rooms of the house and its support spaces are organized around different external spaces, successions of gardens, each with unique experiences, atmospheres, colors, smells and uses.
Huts in the River
The wharf is medieval and assembled with wood. Its identity has existed long beyond the material’s life span. The idea of the project was to renew pieces of the wharf while maintaining all historical values. The project develops into two spaces: one to unwind with the support of a kitchen integrated in the same material of the walls; and the other as a sleeping area with a small bathroom and a shower. The construction is entirely finished in recycled wood, subjected to the weather that will continue its change. The forms, highly archetypal, are designed by the incorporation of these functions. The varied inclinations of the ceiling, position the spaces in tension according to their function.
House in Barreiro
The project is formed by two old warehouses unified into a single space. Outside, the ruin appearance and the traces of the past are maintained; while inside, the walls create a white, bright space: the house. Two gardens shape the relationship between inside and outside. In the double height interior, a central space is inhabited by two blocks of stairs. An archetypal volume exists within the space under a ceiling shaped by the negative of the rooftop pool. The house is defined within this space by the relationship with the pool volume and the existing walls.
Bak Gordon
Blue House
Built in the vast territory of Alentejo, the house emerges from the figure of an extensive water tank attached to a wall, facing south, as if it was a resonance box of the entire landscape. On the other side of the wall the social spaces and two fresco rooms are kept, places of transition between interior and exterior, considered as foundational for the daily life of the house. It is around the small interior patio that different private areas gravitate. The house is totally lined with lime mortar and insulated with cork from the outside. The shape and geometry of spaces, and the insightful openings, together with the immersion in this materiality, bring a sensorial sense which is difficult to recognize from images.
House in Rua São Francisco de Borja
Located in the Lapa neighbourhood, next to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, this house is built on a narrow and long plot, measuring approximately 7 × 26 m. Originally the plot was occupied by a small industrial pavilion, which was entirely removed to make way for the new house. The idea of building a house integrated into a block, where only the façade relates to the city and its context is a theme that has always been part of Bak Gordon’s thinking. How to build a house with the language of its time, that simultaneously respects and enhances the virtues of the place? The façade reveals this concern, letting the internal environments of the house itself echo. Whether through the ground floor and the way the entrances are developed (access door and garage door) in a wooden grid, leaving a glimpse of a ventilated interval between interior and exterior, or at the level of the dining room with a single window in the façade, or even with a kind of subtracted space on the living room floor, where a small garden / flower box ensures the transition between interior and exterior environments. The house develops along the length of the plot, mostly in two volumes that share a common patio, accessible from a fresh loggia, entirely covered in handmade tiles. In a kind of promenade, the house reveals itself in multiple directions, whether horizontally between the more private bedroom and office spaces, or vertically through the social spaces, until reaching the roof and enjoying the magnificent panoramic views over the Tagus River. The combination of exposed concrete in the façades and ceilings, as well as the green handmade tiles, the anodized aluminium frames or the thermomodified wood in the main facade, give the building an important personality and contribute to the atmosphere of the place.
Bar & Pavilion
The Lisbon waterfront is an outstanding environment which is the setting for numerous work and leisure activities. Cultural and tourist attractions bring many visitors to Belém, and they need supporting infrastructures. This bar/esplanade is built like a garden house with a skeleton in painted reinforced concrete, under which the areas of activity are set out. To avoid a shut-in space with an added terrace, the construction includes a small enclosed area just 60 m2 as well as two esplanade areas totalling 100 m2. Glazed elements separating the interior and exterior can be completely removed, thus enabling the various areas to function as one continuous space. The pavilion’s geometry and the way it was built create an environment that is open to the river as well as an intimate atmosphere under the roof.
Garcia da Horta School
Winters in Oporto are usually cold and wet, with heavy rain during much of the school year. This school was built in the 1970s as a series of separate pavilions. It was included in the modernization of Portuguese secondary schools, a program with the aim of introducing new resources that are now considered to be essential for public education. In the context of the new program and the climate, we designed a building that is the school’s central space. It complies with the brief and provides a large recreational area that is external but covered. The building is linear, and opening into the covered area are two of the most dynamic parts of the school: the library and the cafeteria. This covered plaza is located between the existing buildings and its peculiar position and mysterious structure promote a dynamic space and a new centrality. Strong colors in the new environments offer a contrast to the neutrality of the classrooms and provide a motivational atmosphere for the students to gather.
Inês Lobo
Marconi Square
City — The role of the gateway, natural to every train station, seems to have greater importance in the urban settlements of cities in northern Italy, with their constellations of small villages surrounding them. In these cases, the railway infrastructure becomes, both historically and symbolically, a strong network between peculiar and unique urban realities. In the case of the city of Bergamo, this condition is particularly eloquent. The particular position of the station emphasizes its role as the gateway, the starting point of the main avenue, crossing the new city and connecting it, both visually and functionally, with the historic city. The ancient wall of Bergamo’s “Città Alta” has its own entrances, and the San Giacomo gate is at the opposite end of this urban connection, at the top of the axis leading to the 18th-century railway station.
Geometry — The project begins with the delineation of an empty space, which takes the form of a large ring, precisely positioned, around a fountain, a memory of the original design of Piazzale Marconi. An empty space that reinvents and reinterprets the small roundabout that originally organized the public space in front of the Station. This is an empty space, designed to the scale of the pedestrian space in which it is located and the number of people who cross and use it daily. This is a space that fulfills urban and symbolic functions at the city scale, having the scale of a square.
Bench — A bench materializes the construction of this empty space. In a single gesture and with a single object, scaled to the size of the place. Made of white concrete pieces, the bench defines, in a continuous line, the perimeter of this large area, adapting to the subtle oscillations and irregularities of the pavement, ensuring the object’s readability. It contrasts the geometric regularity of its inner shape with an irregular, jagged perimeter that dialogues with the diverse and heterogeneous built environment.
Time — We were asked to come up with a planting scheme for this container of vegetation, which is also a bench for 100 people. The idea was for the planting to create a minimal volume that would underline the proportions of the space, improving comfort and inducing pleasure in lingering. We thought of fragrance, color, texture, and the sense of time: the plants should express the flow of hours throughout the day and also as months go by, expressed in the growth and development of their life cycles.
House and Studio
Industrial Heritage City — This work is located at the top of one of the hills on the eastern edge of Lisbon, an area that was once agricultural land, then industrial, and now completes the modest building alignment of Calçada Duque de Lafões. By repurposing two ruined buildings once associated with industrial activities, the project incorporates two houses, an architecture studio, and two courtyards. At the same time, it restores the design coherence of the ensemble, counteracting the episodic character of previous interventions. The new program and design are enhanced by the existing spatial and material matrix, creating differentiated environments and scales within the interiors, courtyards that connect adjacent spaces, and flexible usage options. Additionally, the design fosters qualified relationships with both the nearby and distant surroundings, offering new views over the Tagus River.
Subtraction and addition — The first operation involved the demolition of the roofs, internal dividing walls, and their respective structures, as well as the complete demolition of the annexes. The studio is located on the ground floor of the warehouse, with two houses on the upper level. No additions are made to the warehouse itself. The removal of the roof transforms this space into a courtyard, which now provides natural light and ventilation for the studio areas.To construct the houses, a new structure is designed with precise geometry, where a system of crossed beams supports the intermediate spaces and the roof.
Mosque and Mouraria Square
Square — A double square is designed. This operates as a central square at two levels, connected by a mediator ramp, which in turn generates two platforms linked to the adjacent streets, Rua do Benformoso and Rua da Palma. By defining this public space and the new connections, the commitment and daily life of the residents of the Mouraria neighborhood are enhanced. Thus, near Rua da Palma, the covered square seeks to be open to the city, emphatic as a void permeable to use. Near Rua do Benformoso, a less trafficked area, the garden square seeks to be a delicate, secluded and living space.
Program — The program is associated with the double square. Above the covered square is a multipurpose room that defines an empty space on Rua da Palma, opening to the garden square to the east. At this street level, in the northern block, there is access to the prayer room, with separate entrances for men and women, interspersed with private courtyards. These courtyards, with ablution areas, serve as antechambers to the prayer spaces. The men’s prayer room is on the lower level, rectangular with central doubleheight ceilings, marked by the mihrab at the eastern end. The women’s prayer room is on the upper level, in a gallery overlooking the space, connected to the garden square. At the Rua da Palma level, in the southern block, access is to the dining room/multipurpose room from the covered square, mediated by a private courtyard. This is a rectangular space with a double-height side area, with another gallery at the top, intended for educational activities and leisure for the community’s children. Two construction systems coexist as a whole, with concrete retaining walls under wooden boxes that define the limits of the garden square.
Space for all — The definition of the program naturally responds to the city’s context. It is a place understood as the boundary of the urban grid, yet also as a boundary between distinct cultural and social realities. The program reflects this plural condition. Therefore, the mixed character is evident in spaces that allow for a variety of purposes, with the religious space designed to be mostly multipurpose. The design optimizes this situation, ensuring a program that is open to both the present and the future.
Affordable Housing
Emerging city — Housing for all is at the heart of an inclusive city’s central program. Intervening in the territory of Vale de Chelas in Lisbon, an area with multiple attempts and configurations of urbanism focused on social housing, calls for work at different scales and types of projects. Requalifying the city involves reinventing public space. More than just streets and squares, parks become places for gathering, housing public programs, and promoting a new way of living. In this operation, the requalification of public space ensures the integration of new collective housing units with the surrounding environment. It presents an opportunity to introduce a new typology that is human-scaled. In this case, it is agricultural in character, with new avenues and squares linking new programs with pre-existing ones, creating a new space for life in this neighborhood.
Housing for all — It is proposed to construct three buildings: one at a higher level and two at a lower level. Both lower-level buildings are in continuity with the city’s ground, ensuring the natural extension of the neighborhood’s urban structure, as well as physical and visual continuity across the territory. Living spaces are conceived as both private and collective. The depth of the façade allows for the creation of a generous exterior space that extends from the interior. The decision to design the balcony system and canopy as a single element—incorporating energy production systems—contributes unmistakably to the overall design.
Module repetition — In the housing buildings, a structural grid with dimensions of 3 × 3 m was established for the façades, serving as the basis for the elevation designs. To span the transversal gap, blades subdivide the different housing typologies on the upper floors. Together with the vertical access structure, they ensure the overall functionality of the building’s structure. A reinforced concrete structure is supported by a metallic framework that houses the balconies and canopies. This framework takes the form of a 3 × 3 × 3 m three-dimensional grid, filled with collaborating slabs. This structural element adds a delicate yet expressive design to the outer envelope of both buildings, significantly enhancing the quality of the urban expression.
Ricardo Car valho
In a building of the early twentieth century Lisbon urban fabric, the only space of contact with the gardens inside the block was closed and unused. It was necessary to rebuild. The result is a new room. The cubic space takes advantage of the natural light and the views of the inner urban landscape. A large window opens outwards. A small window opens into the interior. One of the windows reveals the sequence of private gardns inside the bloc k. A table makes this room a gathering place.
Ribeira 11 Apartment Building
The building is part of the Boavista landfill in Lisbon, an infrastructural operation from the 19th century. The resulting industrial architecture is an architecture of pragmatism. The Ribeira 11 building had several uses throughout the 20th century linked to industry and services. It is an eclectic building, composed of distinct parts and its main feature is the proportion of a narrow and long piece, in the urban morphology of the embankment. The project preserved and reinforced this feature. The project consists of adapting, transforming and expanding the building to 36 housing units. The original building has been preserved in its concrete structure and exterior expression. The new piece that fits this is a white, serial and light-weight steel structure. This solution allows a unitary expression and flexibility of the model and interior typological variation. An inner courtyard has been introduced. It is a new interior space that characterizes the circulations with natural light and vegetation. The roof is made of solid brick so that it can be apprehended from the hills of Lisbon as a roof in continuity with the others. The Ribeira 11 project can be described as a palimpsest.
Horizon Tejo Apartment Building
The project consists of transforming a 19th century building, dating from 1898, into an apartment building. Historically, it is located in an area that was consolidated in the 19th century, in a process of transformation still affected by the post-1755 earthquake context and in particular by the operation of the Boavista Landfill, which began in 1855.The building underwent several uses and transformations throughout the 20th century, with the intervention that adapted it to a car garage being the most striking from a typological point of view. The proposed intervention maintains few elements of the original building. The project seeks harmony between the singular case and the urban fabric. The southfacing U-shaped configuration allows for optimized sun exposure and views from all housing units. The proposal is organized around two courtyards. The open courtyard to the north allows the original façade to remain unchanged. The open courtyard to the south serves as an external connection space and an extension of the private space. This urban typology can be found in several examples of early 20th century architecture in Lisbon. It was necessary to invert the volumetric presence of the urban complex. To the north the complex was expanded, and to the south sections were demolished so that its impact on the city would be more gentle. In this way, its presence in the urban fabric is in continuity with the surroundings, particularly in its visual relationship with the modernist building of the “A Barrraca” Theater. Gardens and water tanks were designed on platforms, seeking a relationship with the gardens and platforms of the Santos Palace, built in the 18th century.
The pavilion was designed for the architecture school at the Autónoma University of Lisbon. It is located on the roof of one of the buildings, where there was another pavilion, which was demolished. It is located on a terrace of generous proportions that serves as the school’s outdoor space. The pavilion consists of a space without specific use, which can be used as an extension of the school cafeteria, as well as hosting various events. The outdoor spaces generated by the pavilion are imagined as places to take a break between classes. Inside, the slope of the roof dominates, punctuated by a skylight. The structure is made of light steel frame and the roof is made of corrugated sheet metal. Its lightness affirms its flexibility.
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