As a vital element for human and non-human species, but also metaphorical and emotional, freshwater is simultaneously political and economic, which is why public debate on the protection, management and future of this natural resource is urgent. Curated by Andreia Garcia and deputy curators Ana Neiva and Diogo Aguiar, FERTILE FUTURES focuses on the problems of water resources in seven Portuguese hydrogeographies, to stimulate thought about a fertile, sustainable and equitable future. In this interview, we talk about climate justice, the politics of water and how the reservoirs of the future look from the Portuguese territory.

This interview is part of KoozArch's focus dedicated to Biennale Architettura 2023 - 18th International Architecture Exhibition The Laboratory of the Future, curated by Lesley Lokko and organised by La Biennale di Venezia. The International Exhibition is open in Venice from May 20 to November 26.

KOOZ FERTILE FUTURES focuses on the scarcity and management of freshwater in the Portuguese territory. What prompted the project? How does the latter relate to Lesley Lokko’s curatorial theme on The Laboratory of the Future?

ANDREIA GARCIA | ANA NEIVA | DIOGO AGUIAR The curatorial narrative of FERTILE FUTURES develops a theme that expresses the emergency of our time. Throughout the world, the scarcity of fresh water is a clear and global problem, with various and specific manifestations at local level. The human struggle for this resource clearly generates complex conflicts on the scale of nations or small regional neighbourhoods, often at the expense of local ecosystems, socio-economic balances and the environment.

Lesley Lokko presents Africa as the "place where all questions of equity, resources, race, hope and fear converge and coalesce”. In FERTILE FUTURES, Africa is presented as a foundation of knowledge based on the experience that results from a more extreme climatic context. This presents interesting strategies of resilience, self-sufficiency and hope, (also) in the management of freshwater, a resource that in the African context is even more limited.

Learning from Africa and other regions that have been dealing with freshwater scarcity for a long time can be an admittedly decolonised strategy to better structure the future, understanding the planet as a single place and its inhabitants—human and non-human—as one, aiming at the common good and the will to build a "fairer, more inclusive and more equitable" society. To fight for climate justice is to defend racial equity and this is only possible if you are aware of the place of privilege occupied by Europe and North America.

At the same time, the Laboratory of the Future urges that, also methodologically, an exploratory program, clear and complex at the same time, based on laboratorial and collaborative dynamics of thought, project and pedagogy, should also be embodied.

The programme proposed by FERTILE FUTURES defends the laboratorial dimension of the architectural project and the ability to move beyond the "representation" of existing "buildings, forms, materials or structures", trying to imagine a fertile future and claiming the "relevance of the discipline" as a cooperative agent in the advancement of solutions for the resolution of complex issues that tend to exceed "our understanding or control."

KOOZ How does the word “fertile” allude to more equitable and sustainable landscapes and heralds a more imaginative practice for generating these?

AG | AN | DA The title FERTILE FUTURES embodies a representation of Portuguese architecture based on speculative proposals for FUTURES that are fairer, more inclusive, more equitable and more diverse, but also more FERTILE, announcing a tomorrow that is greener, healthier, more environmentally friendly, more conscious, more imaginative, generous, abundant, positive, productive, responsible, feminine and plural.

A more fertile future is a place where ecosystems thrive by co-existing respectfully and where imagination has no limits.

KOOZ Freshwater is simultaneously political and economic, which is why public debate on the protection, management and future of this natural resource is urgent. What is the value of discussing and proposing strategies for the management, protection and transformation of freshwater, as both a common and global problem, within the context of the Architecture Biennale? What role can architecture play in the debate?

AG | AN | DA FERTILE FUTURES addresses the scarcity of this resource starting from the Portuguese territory. It discusses and proposes strategies for the management, reservation and transformation of freshwater and contributes to a discussion that is both common and global.

There are seven hydro geographies that constitute the cases under study, presenting from the outset distinct and complex issues, with parallels that can be observed in other parts of the world. All the cases describe a reality with an impact on everyday life: the scarcity of freshwater and conflicts in the management of this resource have been accentuating and affect us in an increasingly real way, presenting us with a much less stable world than the one we have comfortably inhabited. All the seven cases also express the human intervention on territory, of the will to manipulate and control nature in favour of large-scale extractive exploitation interests and often to the detriment of pre-existing local ecosystems. All the cases can therefore be seen on the macro scale of global and planetary problems but can also be felt on the micro scale, in the details of daily life, highlighting the need to understand reality from a "double consciousness", "to see both near and far" simultaneously.

Some of the case studies speak of the tension between nations—of tests of collaboration and cooperation—while others highlight conflicts on the scale of the local neighbourhood, describing the (economic) power games implicit at different scales in contemporary reality, highlighting new "fluid forms of territory and identity and epistemology”. Most cases shed light on social inequalities, identify subordinated and discriminated groups and highlight the worrying breakdown of civil rights on the European continent, which is described as "a modern, diverse and inclusive society". Other cases reflect on the consequences of the accelerated, largely unplanned urban growth which has imposed on the geomorphic and geological realities of the place.

The seven cases under studyare thus paradigmatic examples of anthropocentric action on natural and finite water resources. By looking at these “architectures of water” as reservoirs of the future, an expanded discourse is fostered, useful to the debate of emerging issues. Global themes with local expression are considered, allowing us to reflect on the consequences of climate change in our territory at different scales.

KOOZ Sited within the prestigious Palazzo Franchetti in the heart of Venice, the exhibition deploys a variety of mediums which range from artefacts to drawings, models, collages and videos. Did the sighting of the exhibition outside of the Giardini and Arsenale context and thereby in a context more accessible to the “non-specialist” inform the curatorial approach? If so, how?

AG | AN | DA Being sited in the city centre can be seen as an opportunity, especially after the opening days of the Biennale. Those who visit the Palazzo Franchetti are probably not just architects but also other passersby.

When selecting the seven Portuguese hydrogeographic problematics, we also wanted to address multiple parallel situations in various parts of the globe. In that sense, we expressed a narrative that can be perceivable for many and that focuses on themes to which all visitors can relate to. We thought of an exhibition that, at the same time, courageously puts forward proposals fed by positive thinking and the belief that urgent measures must be taken. The mediums of architectural expression, which vary greatly between teams and therefore in the different exhibition rooms, are at the same time very simple and complex, once they hold intense stories both in form and matter.

KOOZ Specifically, FERTILE FUTURES addresses the problems of water resources in seven Portuguese hydrogeographies to present models for a more sustainable future. Developed through a strategic tripartite approach between practice, theory and teaching and through a multidisciplinary discourse could you expand on the methodology and the opportunities which arose by engaging in such conversations?

AG | AN | DA FERTILE FUTURES advocates the pertinence of architecture’s role in the design of a decarbonised, decolonised, and collaborative future through a triad of actions based on the strategic complementarity between practice, theory and pedagogy in architecture: seven Hydro Geographies Design Workshops, five Assemblies of Thought and an International Summer Seminar.

Hydro Geographies Design Workshops
Focusing on seven distinct hydrogeographies, FERTILE FUTURES commissions young teams of architects and specialists from other areas of knowledge to develop propositional models for a more sustainable, healthy, and equitable tomorrow, in non-hierarchical cooperation between disciplines, generations and species. The seven cases under study exemplify the anthropocentric action on natural and finite water resources: the impact of the Gigabattery in the Bacia do Tâmega; the breach of convention in Douro Internacional; the mining situation in Médio Tejo; the imposition of interests in Albufeira do Alqueva; the anarchy at Rio Mira irrigation perimeter; the eutrophication of the water in Lagoa das Sete Cidades; and the risk of flooding at Ribeiras da Madeira. The exhibition in Venice presents the results of the research and design collective process through texts, diagrams, images, and drawings, along with models at different scales and prototypes.

Assemblies of Thought
A team of ten advisors and seven specialists enrich the topic under discussion and simultaneously take part in different moments of speculative debate open to the public. The five assemblies of thought for awareness and mediation—representative and multi-situated between the virtual space and different physical spaces—publicly and openly discuss the global theme: Lisbon, Venice, Braga, Faro and Porto Santo.

International Summer Seminar
With the mentoring of seven teams of architects and the participation of more than 70 national and international students, the two-week seminar takes place this month, in Fundão, a municipality which is integrated in the list of eight Portuguese cities included in the European Union Mission for Adaptation to Climate Change.

KOOZ According to the WHO over 2 billion people live in water-stressed countries whilst our seventh continent Antarctica, which is melting at the alarming speed of 200 swimming pools per second, accounts for 70% of earth’s freshwater. To what extent does the problem of access to fresh water also require a global perspective to the problem? What could and should governments do at a transnational level?

AG | AN | DA Even if each one of us can make a (small) difference, international political measures are essential and mandatory. Throughout this curatorial process, we have learned that beyond the impact of climate change—which also requires strong international governmental measures—the reasons for the problem of access to freshwater in certain territories is more related to the capitalist understanding of the world.

KOOZ What does the future look like from Portugal’s national participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023?

AG | AN | DA The exhibition presents urgent and dramatic issues but at the same time, it also presents ideas on how we can overcome them. The practice of architecture is a continuous exercise of optimism and perhaps it is precisely this state of mind that is one of the fundamental contributions by architects when taking part in transdisciplinary methodologies.

FERTILE FUTURES believes in the capacity of an architecture exhibition as a platform for knowledge production. The laboratorial character of the multidisciplinary work groups truly fostered new practices of thought in the research of new ways of inhabiting the planet by creating new relations with the evolving ecosystems. From each of the seven FERTILE FUTURES exhibition rooms, the future still looks possible, if we understand that change is urgent and needed.

Bio

Andreia Garcia is an architect, curator, editor, researcher, and university professor. Her research field is defined by an architectural practice that expands the disciplinary intersection with complementary areas. Her interests focus on contemporary architecture practice in an era marked by intense technological advances and a growing ecological crisis. She is founder of the Architectural Affairs studio, founder, and director of the Art(e)facts Knowledge Biennial and co-founder of Galeria de Arquitetura, an independent space for the reflection and debate on architecture, city and territory. She was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Architecture School of the University of Minho and studio tutor at the Architectural Association, in London. She is Assistant Professor and Vice-President of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Beira Interior.

Ana Neiva is an architect, teacher, and researcher, with a PhD from the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto. She has been Visiting Assistant Professor at FAUP since 2013 and is Assistant Professor at FCAATI-ULP and Vice-director of the Centre for Studies in Architecture ARQ.ID at Lusófona University. She is a founding member of the research group Narrativas do Projeto Educativo em Arquitetura at CEAU-FAUP. She regularly participates as an author in international conferences and congresses, and in the organisation of scientific events. Her research focuses on the curatorship of architecture and on the expansion of the discipline to include the dimensions of art, society, health and well-being.

Diogo Aguiar is an architect, who graduated from FAUP (2008). He co-founded LIKEarchitects (2010–2015), selected for the Portuguese Official Representation of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2014. In 2016 he established the Diogo Aguiar Studio, a multidisciplinary studio working between the boundaries of art and architecture, selected for the Portuguese Official Representation of the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2018. He is co-founder and co-curator of Galeria de Arquitetura, an independent space for the reflection and debate on architecture, city and territory. He was co-curator of the Architecture Programme of Maia Contemporary Art Biennale (2019), Visiting Professor in the master’s in architecture at ISCTE-IUL (2020–2021) and Visiting Professor in the master’s in architecture at FAUP (2021–2022).

Federica Zambeletti is the founder and managing director of KoozArch. She is an architect, researcher and digital curator whose interests lie at the intersection between art, architecture and regenerative practices. In 2015 Federica founded KoozArch with the ambition of creating a space where to research, explore and discuss architecture beyond the limits of its built form. Parallel to her work at KoozArch, Federica is Architect at the architecture studio UNA and researcher at the non-profit agency for change UNLESS where she is project manager of the research "Antarctic Resolution". Federica is an Architectural Association School of Architecture in London alumni.