The “Bauhaus of the Sea”, a project led by Técnico, was recently approved by the European Commission. The project brings together researchers, artists, architects and local communities, and aims to develop solutions for climate neutrality on seven coastal cities. The project received a funding of 5 million euros and provides for the creation of demonstrator projects located in Portugal (Lisbon and Oeiras), Italy (Venice and Genova), Sweden (Malmø), Germany (Hamburg), the Netherlands and Belgium (The Delta of the Rhine). Actions are also planned in the Azores, Madeira and several Portuguese-speaking countries.
18 partners from six countries are involved in project, including Portugal – the project leader, through Instituto Superior Técnico and its research units Interactive Technologies Institute (ITI), Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research (IN+), (both part of LARSyS Associate Laboratory) and the Centre for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture (CiTUA) . The project has institutional support of international partners such as the Carnegie Mellon Portugal Program (CMU Portugal). According to the project coordinator Nuno Jardim Nunes, Técnico professor and president of ITI, “this project will allow us to create opportunities for interaction with communities in order to achieve an environmentally sustainable, socially just and aesthetically appealing transition”.
The ocean has ecological importance and housing relevance, as one third of the CO2 emissions is absorbed by the ocean and 41% of the European population live in coastal areas. “The oceans face a number of threats such as plastic pollution, overfishing or sea-level rise. With this project, we want to promote interdisciplinarity between designers, architects, engineers, artists, managers and scientists with a view to creating sustainable design solutions to solve environmental problems in coastal areas”, adds the Técnico professor.
The demonstrator projects are spaces that will host artistic projects based on this theme, aiming to scale these ideas from the field of arts and culture to neighborhoods and specific areas of the cities. In Lisbon and Oeiras, the project will be based in the future “Hub of the Sea”, in Pedrouços, where several demonstration activities will be developed, including blue economy, ocean literacy, sustainable food and mitigation/adaptation solutions to sea-level rise. The “New European Bauhaus” programme, which funds the project, aims to contribute to the EU Green Deal goals with a focus on sustainability and social inclusion.
“We believe that only through a relational and inclusive approach can we tackle the complexity of the central problem: the climate crisis. We propose an inclusive and collaborative mobilization on the most important global natural space of our times: the sea”, says Mariana Pestana, architect and Principal Investigator of the project.
