A arquitetura inevitável - 14ᵃ Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura de São Paulo

Project implementation: Italy
Project development: Italy

Students of the Learning from Abroad 2025 course: Andrea Moscatelli, Carmen Cicia, Chiara Di Cesare, Enrico Maria Corvese Ester Teresa Castillo Anis, Flavia Montegiglio, Francesco Di Gennaro, Gabriele Petrucco, Gianmarco Ottaviani, Hanna Helm, Leonardo Brustolon, Nina Signolet and Valentina Martucci

We are experiencing an unprecedented climate crisis. Despite the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world has failed to reduce its emissions. The year 2023 broke records, and 2024 confirms an even more alarming trend. Climatologists admit their predictions were optimistic: the 1.5°C limit, predicted for 2030, has already been surpassed. The relationship between carbon emissions, rising temperatures, and rising oceans is now indisputable.

In this critical context, the Learning from Abroad course at Roma Tre University proposes an urgent design reflection, recognizing the challenges of this generation of architects, called to work in a scenario of uncertainty and accelerated change. The project L'Architettura Inevitabile confronts the unpredictable: we don't know what the future sea level will be, nor the impact on production chains, infrastructure, and climate migration, with territorial impacts on a planetary scale.

Some cities will have the resources to contain the sea, but not most. It's time to abandon the idea of dominating nature: water is stronger and older than we are. We must learn to live with it and reinterpret territories intelligently.

The students worked on the topic based on a specific case, the Isola Sacra, on the Roman coast. They assumed a 2-meter sea level rise scenario—extreme, but increasingly plausible. Together, they studied the history and characteristics of the site. Then, organized into subgroups, they developed integrated architectural projects, without losing sight of collective decisions. The regional, local, and architectural scales worked together—as they should.

This work presents a collective masterplan composed of five distinct yet closely integrated projects. Each one confronts the water in a unique way: a cultural center that transforms with the tides; a hospital on stilts; floating houses and a school that rise with the water; a sports center that integrates the water as a landscape; and an archaeological complex that incorporates the transformation of the territory into its discourse.

In all of them, time and water are the protagonists.

Finally, one final project remains in the embryonic stage for future reflection: the archaeological park of the future. A denser area of Isola Sacra, which will be overtaken by water and vegetation, will be transformed into a visitable ruin, a monument to our time and the contradictions of territorial occupation.
It's worth remembering: this is a highly complex, short-term project, from the territory to the building. Neither the Masterplan nor the projects are intended to be final. Even without the time, depth, and interdisciplinarity that the topic demands, the students embarked on a painful but urgent challenge. The project by students Andrea Moscatelli, Carmen Cicia, Chiara Di Cesare, Enrico Maria Corvese, Ester Teresa Castillo Anis, Flavia Montegiglio, Francesco Di Gennaro, Gabriele Petrucco, Gianmarco Ottaviani, Hanna Helm, Leonardo Brustolon, Nina Signolet, and Valentina Martucci can be understood in greater detail here: https://acesse.one/tQjaH

Participate in the program of debates, workshops and associated activities!

TODAY (10.10)

2:30 pm – table Risk-Free Periphery in the Context of Climate Change

4pm – table Knowing to Transform: Community Climate Risk Reduction and Adaptation Plans

6:30 pm – table Inclusive Adaptation: Nature-Based Solutions in the Peripheries

9am – Drawing Workshop: Oscar Niemeyer's Architecture in Ibirapuera Park and the Climate Challenge

IN THE NEXT DAYS (11 to 14.10)

ATTENTION the table Palmas: For 36 years, the ecological capital of Tocantins which would be held on 10/11 | 7pm was canceled.

11.10 and 12.10 | 9am – workshop Inventa(rio) Fronteiras: Playing for Multispecies Cities

11.10 | 10am – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 11am – table Learning to inhabit the Anthropocene: the crisis of architecture

11.10 | 2pm – table Architecture for Learning and Civic Use

11.10 | 3pm – table Culture and Public Architecture

11.10 – 15h – workshop Elémenterre teaching bag

11.10 | 4pm – table Reconnecting with Nature & Circular Design

11.10 | 5pm – table Architecture of Belonging: Interpreting Heritage Through Place

12.10 | 10am – table Experience: Climate Refuges and Naturalized Public Spaces, with Eco-Neighborhood

12.10 | 10:30 am – table Childhoods and Climate: Climate Justice in Vulnerable Territories

12.10 | 10:30 am – Windsock Workshop with the Floating Collective

12.10 | 3pm – table Doing a lot with a little: architectures for a planet in transition with Esteban Benavides from Al Borde office

12.10 | 4:30 pm – table Earth – building a sustainable and democratic future

12.10 | 5:45 pm – table French presence at the Biennale and screening of the film AJAP – Albums of Young Architects and Landscape Architects

13.10 – activity Pantanal Action at IABsp

10/14 | 10am – table Urgent Panorama! Space as an act of permanence

14.10 | 6pm – Launch of the “Nature-Based Education” Guide

JOIN! IT'S ALL FREE!

And there's much more until October 19th!

NOTE OF CONDOLENCE

With deep sorrow, the Brazilian Institute of Architects – São Paulo Department (IABsp) mourns the passing of architect and landscape architect Kongjian Yu, a global leader in ecological urbanism, and the members of his team who accompanied him, tragically killed during the filming of a documentary. The institute is honored to have had him as a participant in the 14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennial, where his transformative vision strengthened the dialogue between global challenges and local realities. IABsp emphasizes that Yu's contribution, which transcends borders, will remain an inspiration for generations and expresses its condolences to China, to the families of all the deceased, to his friends, and to all those impacted by his genius and dedication. Read the full note here.

The inevitable architecture

Roma Tre University