THe Weight of Words Wins the Universities Award at the 7th Lisbon Architecture Triennale
FAUP project wins Universities Award at Lisbon Architecture Triennale
EN / PT
The research project The Weight of Words: The City de Jure and the City de Facto has been distinguished with the Universities Award at the Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards 2025, one of the central moments of the opening of the 7th edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, How Heavy is a City?
Led by Maria Neto, a researcher at the Centre for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism (CEAU-FAUP) and lecturer at the University of Beira Interior, and together with Jorge Marum (UBI) and Pedro Leão (FAUP), the project explores the relationship between architecture, law, and human displacement. It employs photography and cartography as tools of critical inquiry to examine the delicate boundaries between the city de jure—the city of law—and the city de facto—the city of lived experience.
Maria Neto, Jorge Marum and Pedro Leão Neto share a common commitment to architecture as a field of cultural, social, and visual inquiry. Their academic and professional trajectories intersect around research-driven and socially engaged design, where architecture is explored not only as a technical discipline but also as a lens through which to interpret contemporary urban and territorial transformations.
Focusing on the vast refugee complex of Dadaab, in northeastern Kenya, The Weight of Words questions the legal and humanitarian frameworks that define the camp as a space of exception. Through images, maps, and narratives, it exposes the tensions between recognition and existence, legality and life, highlighting how the city often exceeds its own legal definition.
By bringing this reflection into the framework of the Triennale’s overarching theme, How Heavy is a City?, the project extends the notion of urban weight beyond material structures to include the invisible architectures of language, policy, and power. Its inclusion in the exhibition Spectres, at MUDE – Lisbon Design Museum, further expands this dialogue, linking the politics of visibility with the technological and ethical dimensions of contemporary urbanisation.
Receiving the Universities Award affirms The Weight of Words as a research project that not only bridges disciplines but also reimagines the role of architecture as an instrument of critical and ethical engagement.
The Lisbon Triennale Millennium bcp Awards ceremony, held at the Museum of Contemporary Art – Centro Cultural de Belém (MAC/CCB), celebrated excellence and diversity in contemporary architecture. The Indian duo ReSa Architects, winners of the Début Award, moved the audience with their reflections on shared authorship and collective listening. At the same time, Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari, recipient of the Career Award 2025, concluded the evening with an inspiring message to younger generations.
Moments such as this reaffirm the role of architecture as a cultural, social, and ethical practice — and the importance of recognising those who design, research, and build with awareness and courage.