Metropolis Cortex, a analysis programme supported by world-leading cork producer Corticeira Amorim and unveiled this month, makes use of Lisbon as a testbed to discover new prospects for the fabric’s use in city design. The challenge challenged internationally recognised architects and designers Eduardo Souto de Moura, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Gabriel Calatrava, Leong Leong, Sagmeister & Walsh, and Yves Behar to current experimentations with cork, making a collection of public installations. The idea was curated by Guta Moura Guedes, a mainstay in Portugal’s artwork and tradition scene.
Leong Leong, ‘Lily Pad’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
Metropolis Cortex opens to the general public
‘Cork is a really candy and emotional materials […] We’re surrounded by concrete, by iron, and now we have now these small gestures product of cork to show us that nature is a part of our cities, and that sweetness and wellbeing are as nicely,’ explains Moura Guedes of Metropolis Cortex, which was inaugurated final weekend in Lisbon.
Initially slated for a gap in New York Metropolis earlier than the pandemic, Metropolis Cortex moved its launch nearer to its Portuguese cork roots, with works now put in on websites throughout Belém and Trafaria in Lisbon till November 2024.
Initiatives embrace Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s ‘Second Pores and skin’, the place cork-wrapped tree trunks remodel a small public backyard close to the Biblioteca Municipal de Belém into an open-air studying room; and Behar’s ‘Port_All’ totemic cork construction, symbolically mirroring close by Belém Tower, whereas additionally leaning into cork’s softness and extremely absorbent properties to supply a sensory respite from town’s typical materials palette.
Gabriel Calatrava, ‘Onda’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
Additional initiatives embrace Souto de Moura’s ‘Conversadeira II’, a love-seat-inspired construction deliberately positioned on the intersection of two buildings constructed greater than 100 years aside. It invitations contemplation on the previous and way forward for Lisbon. Then, there’s Sagmeister & Walsh’s collection of interventions, tackling, for instance, sound air pollution with cork in a ceaselessly used metropolis underpass, whereas encouraging a longer-term method to conversations on environmental adjustments.
Gabriel Calatrava, ‘Onda’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
‘Onda’ by Gabriel Calatrava’s Collaborative Structure Laboratory (CAL)
‘How can we shield or broaden on the general public realm, utilizing areas which are uncared for?’ asks Calatrava, discussing the motivation for activating disused areas in cities like New York and Lisbon. Recognising his challenge’s website in Trafaria, throughout the river Tagus, as residence to many newly migrated communities, Calatrava sought to root his activation round creating an area for gathering.
Yves Behar, ‘Port All’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
Now, straight off the docks, persons are greeted by Gabriel Calatrava’s Collaborative Structure Laboratory (CAL)’s everlasting cork intervention, ‘Onda’. A large undulating cover faucets into cork’s infrared-absorbing properties to offer much-needed shade and tables for gathering beneath. Collaborating carefully with Trafaria municipality’s authorities and EDA – Ensaios e Diálogos Associação, a neighborhood civic group – native communities are actively inspired to deliver disused items of furnishings, comparable to chairs, to the location, to be wrapped and guarded in a layer of cork, selling notions of reusability and recycling (alongside the broader advantages of cork furnishings).
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, ‘Second Pores and skin’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
‘Lily Pad’ by Leong Leong
Again by the waterfront in Belém, sibling duo Dominic Leong and Chris Leong of internationally recognised Leong Leong, have been impressed by the idea of ‘town as a playground’.
‘Considered one of my first relationships with town was via skateboarding […] Encountering totally different components of structure, furnishings, playgrounds…’ explains Dominic of his experiences of navigating cityscapes, and going through the obstacles of ‘defensible area’.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro, ‘Second Pores and skin’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
Prompted by the questions, ‘What’s the relationship between our bodies and the encircling metropolis?’ and ‘How do they discover consolation or relaxation?’, Leong Leong designed ‘Lily Pad’. For his or her idea, they remodeled cork via a strategy of excessive strain and temperature manipulation to yield a particular, darkish, strongly scented playscape that ‘creates a tactility or heat, as should you have been touching the bottom’.
Eduardo Souto de Moura, ‘Conversadeira II’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
‘In a variety of methods the challenge was about creating an indefensible play state […] prospects within the area for various our bodies to search out consolation.’
Although every challenge gives distinct interpretations of cork’s potential in city design, a palpable unifying thread is a deep appreciation of cork’s resilience, versatility and materials intelligence, in addition to the significance of group, engagement and participation, and an exploration of the politics of public area.
Sagmeister & Walsh, ‘Humpbacks’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
With continued plans for public programming in Lisbon and past, in addition to the launch of a complementary publication that captures all initiatives, to be launched in September 2024 in New York, the dialog on the usage of cork in city design is way from over.
Sagmeister & Walsh, ‘Cork Bottles’
(Picture credit score: Ricardo Gonçalves)
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