Architectural objects confront their environment. They constitute a
boundary, a form with an internalized point of view. Understanding
architecture as environmental objects suggest a questioning of these
dichotomies of separation between the symbolic landmark and the
landscape background. It represents an architecture that amplifies
nature, attunes to it and makes us aware of it.
Portugal Lessons: Imagining Architecture as Environmental Object
takes Portugal as case study for such contextualism going beyond and
understanding of design as immunization. Based on the latest research
program conducted by EPFL's Laboratory Basel (laba),
it explores the topic of this architectural boundary: with whom we live
with, to whom we open our house, how permeable the boundary should be.
The findings are visualized in striking images, graphics and maps. The
book also features proposals for architectural interventions by laba's
students, all of them tackling issues of housing.
