Sophia Journal Vol. 11 Announces International Conference at OASRN on Landscapes of Repair
Order of Architects – Northern Regional Section (OASRN) | September 24-25, 2026
Abstract deadline: 31 JANUARY 2026
ORGANIZATION
OASRN
FAUP | CENP | AAI
ESMAD / UniMAD
COORDINATION
Pedro Leão Neto (FAUP)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE / EDITORS
Ana Miriam Rebelo (FAUP)
Maria Neto (FAUP/UBI)
Raquel Paulino (FAUP)
Cristina Gastón (ETSAB-UPC) - Guest Editor
Hugh Campbell (UCD) - Guest Editor
Parallel Program
Olívia Marques da Silva (Cultural Center, Porto / ESMAD - ID+)
The international conference Sophia Journal Vol. 11 — Landscapes of Repair. The Invisible City: Manplan and Contemporary Forms of Repair will take place in September 2026 at the Order of Architects – Northern Regional Section, on September 25th (morning and afternoon) and September 26th (morning).
Part of the fourth thematic cycle of the Sophia Journal, dedicated to Landscapes of Repair, the conference proposes a broad reflection on the role of photography, cinema, and other visual practices in the critical reading of contemporary cities and territories. The event will continue the work developed by the Sophia Journal as an editorial and scientific platform dedicated to the relationship between architecture, art, and image, especially how visual media can contribute to the research, documentation, and transformation of built space.
This initiative also continues and reinforces the success of the parallel program and events already held within the framework of the exhibition Wide-Angle View: Architecture as Social Space in the Manplan Series 1969–70, consolidating the partnership between FAUP, through the Nuno Portas Studies Center, in particular the Architecture, Art and Image research group and the Sophia Journal editorial and scientific project, and the Order of Architects – Northern Regional Section.
The Wide-Angle View exhibition, inaugurated at OASRN on February 27th, revisited the influential photographic series Manplan — originally published by The Architectural Review magazine between 1969 and 1970 — which sought to critically analyze the role of architecture in social organization and contemporary living conditions. The exhibition's parallel program, held between March 12th and May 29th, 2026, included guided tours, public talks, educational activities, and the HABITAR roundtable series. Between Project and Life: Promoting a dialogue between the critical memory of Manplan and the current challenges of the city and housing.
The Sophia Journal Vol. 11 conference delves deeper into this framework, using the Manplan series as a starting point to revisit a question that remains urgent: how can architecture, planning, and visual practices make visible the social, political, ecological, and material pressures that shape the contemporary city? More than fifty years later, Manplan's legacy continues to challenge architecture by denouncing the mismatch between project intentions and lived reality, placing people, ways of living, and urban conditions at the center of the image.
Under the title "The Invisible City: Manplan and Contemporary Forms of Reparation," the conference will explore how photography, film, and visual essays can reveal inequalities, systemic failures, processes of urban decay, and possibilities for transformation. In the current context, marked by the climate crisis, social precarity, deteriorating infrastructure, and less visible forms of collective exhaustion, reparation emerges as a task that is simultaneously ethical, material, ecological, and imaginative.
Sophia Journal has established itself as an international forum for debate around architecture, photography, film, and visual practices. The 7th Sophia Journal International Conference, dedicated to Landscapes of Care, was held in 2022 at the Fernando Távora Auditorium, FAUP, with a program focused on the dialogue between architecture, art, and image. The launch of Sophia Journal Vol. 8, hosted by OASRN, also reinforced the importance of the journal as a meeting place for students, researchers, professionals, and international editors, highlighting the role of photography and film in valuing places, processes, and architectural and landscape heritage.
The Sophia Journal Vol. 11 No. 1 edition features Cristina Gastón (ETSAB-UPC) and Hugh Campbell (University College Dublin) as guest editors, and Ana Miriam Rebelo, Maria Neto, and Raquel Paulino (FAUP) as editors.
The conference will also include Valeria Carullo as a keynote speaker, continuing the collaboration developed within the Wide-Angle View project. A photography curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Valeria Carullo accompanied the exhibition's opening at OASRN with a guided tour, reinforcing the connection between the presentation in Porto and the curatorial research.
With this new conference, Sophia Journal proposes a space for debate on the urgent need to repair a fragmented planet, questioning the contemporary city from its visible and invisible layers. Between critical memory, visual investigation, and design imagination, Landscapes of Repair invites authors, researchers, architects, artists, and image professionals to consider new forms of witnessing, attention, and coexistence.
For any queries:
Please contact our Editors at info.sophiajournal@arq.up.pt