Designing in Times of Crisis

Designing in Times of Crisis offers insights, visions, and strategies for architects and urban designers to question and respond to the crises and challenges of the contemporary anthropocentric world. The book highlights the urgency of addressing global crises and encourages architects and urban designers to consider new approaches related to gender equity, city ethics, and fundamental human rights. It promotes the adoption of sustainable practices that heed the social, economic, and environmental impacts of their work, particularly focusing on Portuguese and Brazilian contexts.

The book fosters new thinking and practices to provide a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary architecture and urban design. It investigates how these disciplines can adapt to the fluidity of the digital age, respond to climate change, and embrace social justice, all while maintaining a commitment to innovation and sustainability. The book is divided into two parts: “Envisioning” and “Applying”. The first explores various urban and architectural proposals triggered by climate change and contemporary social issues. The second focuses on different experimentations in architectural and urban design, building techniques, dwelling, and teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as citizenship formation.

This timely research is relevant for students, researchers, and practitioners interested in architecture, urban planning, and sustainable design.

Jorge Cruz Pinto is a Portuguese architect and visual artist. He is currently a Professor at the Lisbon School of Architecture, University of Lisbon, Portugal. He was president of the Scientific Council, former head of the Architectural Design Department, and founder and former president of the CIAUD – Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism, and Design. He was also an invited professor at La Sapienza Università di Roma and at the Facoltà di Architettura di Matera. Pinto’s publications include several books and scientific articles about architecture, aesthetics, architectural design works, and art works, namely para-architectures.

Ljiljana Čavić is a Serbian architect and Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Lisbon School of Architecture, University of Lisbon, where she earned her doctoral degree in 2018. She holds a master’s degree from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade. She is a member of CIAUD – Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism, and Design and the architecture + design/drawing + art + project + theory/technology (ADAPT) group. Her research focuses on UrbArch Emptiness and the immaterial qualities of urban-architectural spaces. She is the co-author of Solid and Convex Voids, an analytic and representational method intended for investigating the unbuilt parts of urban-architectural spaces.

Hugo Lopes Farias is a Portuguese architect and a Professor in Architectural Design at the Lisbon School of Architecture, University of Lisbon, where he has been teaching since 1997. He has been the Coordinator of the Doctoral Program in Architecture since 2018, and the Architecture Cluster of CIAUD – Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism, and Design since 2021. His research focuses on the architecture of dwelling across multiple scales, aiming to develop adequate, accessible, diverse, and higher-quality housing solutions for both the present and the future.

Luis Miguel Ginja is a Portuguese architect with a PhD from the Lisbon School of Architecture. He is an integrated researcher at CIAUD – Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism, and Design and has coordinated the WATer project – Water, Architecture and Territory – since 2022, and participated in other research projects on territory and city subjects. He was an invited Assistant Professor for the Industrial Design course at the Universidade da Beira Interior. His research primarily explores design themes, with a focus on the relationship between the body and space, the hand and the design process, and the interaction between the city and the territory.