Here, Ramos interprets weight in terms of pressure and consequence, which in turn shape the international conference series Talk Talk Talk.
FEDERICA SOFIA ZAMBELETTI / KOOZThe 2025 Talk, Talk, Talk international conference series expounds on the question posed by John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog of Territorial Agency — How heavy is a city? Filipa, could you start by sharing your first reactions to the theme of this seventh edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale?
FILIPA RAMOS When I first read Territorial Agency’s question for the title of their project, it seemed to echo Buckminster Fuller’s provocation — “How much does your house weigh?” — a simple question that contains a whole world of responsibility. The theme brings us directly into the material and planetary consequences of architecture. Weight is not only a physical property but also a reference for the redistribution of matter and the pressures exerted on the planet by human activity. The theme struck me as urgent, poetic and also with a very important political relevance, inviting architecture to think about its duties and responsibilities and its complex engagement in obsolete concepts of growth and expansion.
"Weight is not only a physical property but also a reference for the redistribution of matter and the pressures exerted on the planet by human activity."
KOOZYour own research addresses precarious ecologies and the relationships fostered between nature and technology. What overlaps and points of tension did you identify with your ongoing research and curatorial practice into non anthropocentric perspectives?
FRMy research focuses on relationships, establishing bridges across disciplines, creative realms, ontologies, human and nonhuman technologies and worldviews. I am particularly interested in understanding the ways art, cinema and spatial practices may have a positive impact in changing the values our Westernised society created during the period of constitution of Modernity, and to change attitudes towards the occupation, extraction and instrumentalisation of the “natural world” (nature is such a complex term, full of projections and distortions, and at the same time it remains an important concept to define humanity’s relationship to its nonhuman origins and peers). The overlap with Territorial Agency’s approach is in recognising that human structures — cities, infrastructures, technologies — are never separate from ecological systems. The tension arises in the dissonance between the monumental scale of human extraction and the fragility of the worlds it disrupts. I am interested in how art and the practice and theory of architecture can allow us to imagine non-anthropocentric ways of inhabiting these tensions.
"The tension arises in the dissonance between the monumental scale of human extraction and the fragility of the worlds it disrupts."
KOOZIn a recent conversation with Territorial Agency, their theme was framed as “a way to intercept the new magnitude of human space [where] the contemporary city is the technosphere”, within which we may imagine and construct new techniques of association. What ‘techniques of association’ can one identify within Lisbon — what urban modalities transcend traditional spatial proximities, but yet are vital to the city?
FRI appreciate how Territorial Agency describes the city as a key representative of the technosphere, requiring new techniques of association. This is about recognising that the urban is not confined to its physical boundaries — it is entangled with flows of energy, data, food, minerals and people. My hometown of Lisbon, for instance, is permanently exhibiting and performing the associations between migrant networks, trades, oceanic routes and colonial histories. These associations are not always visible in spatial proximity, yet they are vital to how the city lives, remembers and projects itself.
"This is about recognising that the urban is not confined to its physical boundaries — it is entangled with flows of energy, data, food, minerals and people."
KOOZThe Talk, Talk, Talk series will focus specifically on the “role of weight and pressure on spatial, infrastructural, relational and environmental matters”. How do you interpret notions of weight and pressure in this sense? What is the potential of exploring these with the selected interlocutors?
FRI read weight as both the matter accumulated through human and nonhuman activity and as a legacy that presses upon us. Pressure, in turn, is the force these weights exert — sometimes oppressive, sometimes transformative. Pressure is an incredible phenomena. It manages to, for instance, do something as glorious as turning grapes into wine or cereals into bread, but it can also break bodies, physically, mentally and emotionally. Exploring these vectors with the incredible interlocutors we have invited allows us to think about architecture not just as form but first and foremost as relation, negotiation, as a field of tensions that can either crush or transform.
"Pressure is an incredible phenomena. It manages to, for instance, do something as glorious as turning grapes into wine or cereals into bread, but it can also break bodies, physically, mentally and emotionally."
KOOZIf one looks at the topic of extractivism, it is clear that the discussion seeks to expand beyond mineral extraction to also focus on ongoing genocide in Palestine. Focusing on the three talks — stemming from the three research agendas of the exhibition Fluxes, Spectres and Lighter — could you share your thought process in terms of interlocutors invited to participate?
FRThe theme of extractivism, as discussed in the series by Eyal Weizman, Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari, expands to include the violent extraction of life in Gaza. This perspective guided the selection of interlocutors across the three agendas, which follow the key topics that Territorial Agency introduced for their curatorial project for the Triennale's shows and projects:The section entitled Spectres faces the ghosts and monsters of the Anthropocene, with Kenny Cupers, Suad Amiry and Yara Sharif & Nasser Golzari (Architects for Gaza) confronting histories of violence and the haunting presence of colonialism and geology. Fluxes, meanwhile, brings in Andrés Jaque, Tiago Patatas and Kathryn Yusoff to discuss circulations of matter and meaning, infrastructures, and systems of power. Related to notions of weight as we discussed, the Lighter section invites voices such as Supawut Boonmahathanakorn, Cristina Díaz Moreno and Efren Garcia Grinda, and Eyal Weizman to think of weight as responsibility and care.
KOOZSpeakers invited “are encouraged to discuss and present original ideas and case-studies that may contribute to a prismatic and layered conceptualisations of each thread.” How do you imagine these exchanges resonating beyond the Triennale?
FRThe Talks are not about self-presentation but about sharing case studies and original ideas. We want to nurture layered, prismatic exchanges where architecture meets anthropology, activism, law and art and people from various backgrounds, but also with a solid practice within architecture, to meet and exchange ideas that concern them all in their individual and diverse practices. The aim is to produce knowledge that is accessible yet complex, resonating with both experts and wider audiences. I imagine these conversations leaving echoes — giving people new conceptual tools, but also images, metaphors and questions to carry with them.
KOOZReflecting on the format of the Triennale itself and the programme of talks, how does the triennial rhythm allow for a maturation and depth to the topics they address? What is the potential of these temporary zones and events?
FRThe rhythm of the Triennale, happening in and for Lisbon every three years, allows themes to mature and accumulate layers of meaning. Temporary events like this create zones of intensity — moments where disciplines cross, where urgencies crystallise. Their potential lies in generating conversations and alliances that can continue afterwards, influencing how we think, act, and design. The Talks become a rehearsal space for the kinds of associations and futures we need.
About
'How heavy is a city?' is the 7th edition of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. This question instigates a three-year research project, carried out by an ever-growing coalition, into the complex set of transformations of the city, revealing a planetary new figure in the making. From October 02 to December 08 2025, the Lisbon Triennale 2025 includes three exhibitions — Fluxes, Spectres and Lighter —, a three-day conference series, a selection of Independent Projects, and a publication. It acts as a convener, engaging a broad team of experts from science to philosophy or the arts. This year's edition is curated by Territorial Agency (Ann-Sofi Rönnskog and John Palmesino).
Bios
Filipa Ramos is a writer and curator. Her practice-led research focuses on how contemporary culture engages with ecology. She is Lecturer at the Institute Art Gender Nature at the Basel Academy of Art and Design and Artistic Director of Loop Festival, Barcelona. Ramos was previously curator of Art Basel Film (2020-24) and a founding curator of the online artists’ cinema Vdrome. With Lucia Pietroiuisti, she founded and leads arts, humanities and science festival The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish (2018-onwards), which has been presented in London, Oporto and Berlin. Recent projects include BESTIARI at the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), Songs for the Changing Seasons for the 1. Klima Biennale Wien (also 2024) and in 2022, Persons Personen, the 8th Biennale Gherdëina (both with Pietroiusti). In 2021, she co-curated Bodies of Water, the 13th Shanghai Biennale, led by Andrés Jaque. Her upcoming books, The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish and The Artist as Ecologist (both Autumn 2025) pursue her key investigation of art’s engagement with environmental thought and action.
Federica Sofia Zambeletti is the founder and managing director of KoozArch. She is an architect, researcher and digital curator whose interests lie at the intersection between art, architecture and regenerative practices. In 2015 Federica founded KoozArch with the ambition of creating a space where to research, explore and discuss architecture beyond the limits of its built form. Parallel to her work at KoozArch, Federica is Architect at the architecture studio UNA and researcher at the non-profit agency for change UNLESS where she is project manager of the research "Antarctic Resolution". Federica is an Architectural Association School of Architecture in London alumni.
