Curators and authors Paula Melâneo, Pedro Bandeira and Luca Martinucci reflect on which ideals end with the exhibition, and what may yet evolve from this atlas.
Federica Sofia Zambeletti / KOOZ I would like to begin by reflecting on the format of Atlas Paraiso, hoje as a counterpart to the interactive, digital dimension of the eponymous exhibition. What motivated the creation of this physical counterpart, and how does it relate to the exhibition?
Paula Melâneo, Pedro Bandeira & Luca Martinucci The digital and interactive installation Paraíso, hoje was conceived for the broad audience of the Venice Architecture Biennale. It takes the form of a performative environment and is grounded in a metaphor of the Anthropocene — the awareness that our presence has direct implications on the environment. It unfolds in its own space and time: a time of faster, more dynamic, yet meditative engagement. It occupies a physical space in the Pavilion — one must go there to experience it; there is no alternative but to be present, here and now. In doing so, it positions itself as an intentional counterpoint to the overwhelming flow of information offered by a large-scale event like the Biennale. The book — Atlas Paraíso, hoje — emerged from an ongoing curatorial research and takes the form of a publication, becoming one of the exhibition’s central elements. It offers a slower pace for engagement — for observation, reading, and reflection. The Atlas seeks to deepen the contribution of architects and landscape architects in the relationship between what we build and the territory — exploring how contemporary architecture actively shapes the landscape. It also proposes a plural perspective on territory, acknowledging that landscapes are not shaped by architects alone. For this reason, an Open Call was launched, inviting “living beings” to contribute their visions of paradise — a paradise understood as accessible, everyday territories in harmony with the environment. Photographers were also invited to contribute to this visual narrative, expanding the cultural construction of landscape. Now published as a two-volume book, one volume presents the Atlas of images — more than 700 images, including the 36 selected submissions to the Open Call — while the second volume brings together all written content: the curatorial manifesto, three essays (by essayist António Guerreiro, architect and researcher Maria Manuel Oliveira and artist Nuno da Luz), and four interviews with landscape architects (Aurora Carapinha, João Gomes da Silva, João Nunes and Luís Paulo Faria Ribeiro). Together, they aim to expand the reflection beyond the time and space of the Biennale itself.
"The images in this Atlas shift meaning depending on who is viewing them, and in what context — where some see utopia, others see dystopia; where some see the past, others see the future."
KOOZ How does the volume extend and deepen the exhibition’s challenge to dichotomies such as natural/artificial and presentation/representation?
PM, PB, LM The process behind the Atlas — open, dynamic, and guided by questions rather than assumptions — led us to a kind of deconstruction of binary oppositions. Everything begins to blur, everything merges. Reality revealed itself to be far more complex, encompassing fiction and the imaginary within it. One example of this is the very idea of Paradise: a place that likely never existed, yet continues to inhabit our collective imagination. This paradox runs through the project on multiple levels. The images in this Atlas shift meaning depending on who is viewing them, and in what context — where some see utopia, others see dystopia; where some see the past, others see the future. To avoid steering these interpretations, we chose not to include captions or credits alongside the images. Instead, each image is marked only by a number that refers to a separate table, which may or may not be consulted. What interested us most was reflecting on how architectural visual culture — particularly in the context of landscape — is shaped through both presentation and representation. Rather than treating these as opposites, we see them as deeply intertwined — both are modes of constructing the imaginary of the landscape. The Atlas embraces this ambiguity: it does not seek to define a single truth, but instead creates a space where perception, memory, fiction, and reality coexist within the same visual field.
KOOZ The volume unfolds through the idea of an atlas composed of both collected and commissioned images. What lies in the power of this multiplicity of perspectives and ways of seeing the landscape? To what extent does this compendium aim to be exhaustive?
PM, PB, LM We sought to focus our attention on the Portuguese landscape of the past two decades. Around themes such as urban pressure, tourism, energy, water, land use and even fiction, we have been collecting cases of different typologies and scales. We also aimed to include a diversity of projects in terms of their public, collective, or private nature. Although we tried to echo Carlo Ratti’s call for “one place, one solution,” the outcome could never be exhaustive — nor was that ever the goal. It is a reading shaped at a specific time and within a particular context — the “today” in Paraíso, hoje.
From the very beginning, we embraced the project’s incomplete nature, allowing room to be surprised. And we were. As we developed the Atlas, unexpected contributions arrived — such as the case of a series of agricultural annexes built by a non-profit association on land devastated by wildfire. This brings forward key issues such as wildfires, severe droughts, and the abandonment of inland regions by a younger population drawn to city-based employment. These themes find expression in the architecture of these annexes, built in traditional methods using timber from the very trees affected by the fire.
"Although we tried to echo Carlo Ratti’s call for “one place, one solution,” the outcome could never be exhaustive — nor was that ever the goal. It is a reading shaped at a specific time and within a particular context — the “today” in Paraíso, hoje."
KOOZ The atlas can be approached through multiple lenses—ranging from mobility and architecture for the many, to energy systems and water. What is the potential of exploring such diverse themes through the format of an atlas?
PM, PB, LM We could hardly have done it any other way, in the sense that, when we talk about landscape, everything is intrinsically connected. It is ecology — or the absence of it. Once again, it was a risk we decided to take — a risk in the sense that this holistic vision might become superficial. But this was never meant to be an academic study. Instead, it aimed to be an investigation capable of raising questions — and even suggesting solutions — by giving visibility to issues, while fully acknowledging that we could hardly provide definitive answers to the problems we presented. The Atlas format holds the potential to establish unexpected dialogues and to point toward multiple directions or possibilities of response — there are many sides, not everything is perfect, and not everything is bleak.
KOOZ While deeply rooted in the Portuguese landscape, many of the themes explored resonate across other geographies. To what extent does the Atlas invite a collective reflection on landscape—one that transcends borders and national identities?
PM, PB, LM In fact, many of the issues we identified in the Portuguese landscape are shared across other geographies. Since the famous photograph of Earth — The Blue Marble (1972) — there has been an awareness that administrative borders do not define the scale of problems. Globalization is also the expression (and desire) for the recognition that no systems exist in isolation — whether environmental, economic, commercial, or political.
As with everything, we can view this from either a more optimistic or more pessimistic perspective. Interestingly, during the final days of the Biennale, we will host a workshop at the Pavilion of Portugal with students from IUAV to reflect on the meaning of “paradise,” starting from Venice and the landscape of the Laguna. Many of these master’s students come from abroad, and it seems this idea also resonates with them. Perhaps because the notion of paradise is, in fact, present across many cultures and religions. These are collective legacies — diverse, yet so often rooted in common ground. And maybe that’s precisely what we need most today: to find spaces of sharing, common interests, and ways to address our shared concerns.
"...the notion of paradise is, in fact, present across many cultures and religions. These are collective legacies — diverse, yet so often rooted in common ground. And maybe that’s precisely what we need most today: to find spaces of sharing."
KOOZ Some of the images in the book are “real,” while others are rendered. How does the Atlas operate at the intersection between the tangible and the imagined, and why is this intersection particularly significant today?
PM, PB, LM The opposition between reality and representation is, in truth, illusory: both belong to the same ontological field and participate in the same operation of meaning. Representation — whether sketch, drawing, model, or render — is not an external supplement to reality, but a way of thinking it, constructing it, and even experiencing it. Since the beginning, to design has meant to virtualize, and this virtualization acts as an analytical tool. We could even say that perspective "invented" architecture, just as the utopian city may be understood as one of the first renders: not mere fictions, but knowledge devices. Paradise, too, can be read as a render. It is the image of a desire — and desire, as a force that shapes and configures the real, is experienced as something entirely present.
We live today in such a regime of iconolatry that, when faced with a concrete landscape, we almost feel the need to submit it to the act of representation, as if only through the image could it gain consistency or recognition. Reality seems to depend on its own imagetic duplication to become legible. It is at this threshold that the Atlas operates: in the porosity between the tangible and the imagined — not as opposing extremes, but as two intensities of the same substance. Everything is landscape — including fiction, simulacra, and projections that allow new worlds to emerge. The Atlas does not merely record what exists; it also records what insists — what seeks form. And it is precisely in this tension — productive, vibrational — that its relevance today resides.
"Paradise, too, can be read as a render. It is the image of a desire — and desire, as a force that shapes and configures the real, is experienced as something entirely present."
KOOZ The book is being launched as the Venice Biennale draws to a close. What are your hopes for this volume as a lasting object? How do you envision continuing the reflection on the questions raised throughout these past months?
PM, PB, LM The book is only being published now because we understood this time interval — the period of the exhibition, with its reactions, critiques, and conversations — as a time for process, analysis, and debate. The methodology we followed does not end with the result presented at the Biennale; on the contrary, it is drawn as a continuous movement, a critical practice that extends beyond the event itself. Perhaps the Atlas even calls for a new edition — one that could serve as a living, visible thermometer of the Portuguese landscape, keeping the analysis of the territory and its imaginaries open. With this publication, we hope to expand and prolong the debate.
Unlike the Biennale, which remains inaccessible to many, the book can circulate freely: it can reach schools, libraries, and contexts where these discussions are urgently needed. We want it to function as a starting point for new conversations on landscape and territory, as has already happened in Lisbon and Venice. At the same time, we hope the Atlas preserves its dynamic nature. We do not see it as a closed archive, but as a process in continuous metamorphosis: a critical organism that can grow, branch out, and reconfigure itself in step with the transformations of the country. Who knows — perhaps, during the project’s itinerancy next year in Portugal, new volumes will emerge, new cartographies both fictional and real, keeping open the possibility of thinking about landscape and territory as something always in formation.
"We do not see it as a closed archive, but as a process in continuous metamorphosis: a critical organism that can grow, branch out, and reconfigure itself."
About the Book
Atlas Paraíso, hoje (Circo de Ideias, 2025) is edited by Pedro Bandeira, Paula Melâneo and Luca Martinucci. Developed as part of the official Portuguese representation at the 2025 International Exhibition of Architecture at La Biennale di Venezia, the Atlas is both a collective and critical study. Expanding on the pavilion’s curatorial research, it presents an ambitious collection of more than 700 images, including 36 contributions selected through an Open Call. The above conversation was conducted on the occasion of the book launch for Atlas, Paraiso hoje to be held on 22 November 2025 at the Portugal Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Bios
Paula Melâneo is an architect, editor, curator and cultural producer. She is part of the editorial staff of J—A Jornal Arquitectos, for which she was co-author and coordinator of the editorial project (2015-19). She is a member of AICA – the International Association of Art Critics. She is the curator of the project Artificialis: The Nature of Latent Images presented in Guimarães (DGArtes and University of Minho, 2024-25). She was co-curator of the projects: Collection of Portuguese Architecture in Democracy 2000-2024 (Casa da Arquitectura); Almada: a Territory in Six Ecologies (Museu de Almada, 2020) and Generation Z: Emerging Portuguese Architectural Practices, Exhibitions and Conferences (2009-11).
Pedro Bandeira is an architect, an associate professor at EAAD/University of Minho and researcher at Lab2PT. In 2025 he presented works in the exhibition Artificialis: The Nature of Latent Images (Garagem Avenida, Guimarães). Bandeira received the AICA/Carmona e Costa Foundation Architecture Criticism Prize (2015) for his book Escola do Porto: Lado B (CIAJG/Documenta, 2014). He has participated in various exhibitions, either as a curator or with his own work. As a curator, he has collaborated with: Casa da Arquitectura; Lisbon Architecture Triennale; Porto City Council and many more. As an author, he has published the books Arcosanti (Circo de Ideias 2017) and O Mundo às Costas (Pierrot le Fou Editora/DGArtes, 2019). He has exhibited his work at the Venice Architecture Biennale, São Paulo Architecture Biennale, Lisbon Architecture Triennale and MAAT among other institutions.
Luca Martinucci is an architect trained in Milan and Lisbon; he has collaborated with various architects and architectural studios in Italy and Portugal. His multidisciplinary background and interest in art history led him to found the 18—25 Research Studio in 2010, which he now shares with architect Filipe Alves. The studio is dedicated to researching simulation processes and methods of representation related to the architectural realm. Martinucci has presented his work and that of the studio at various universities and cultural institutions, including Artificialis: The Nature of Latent Images at Garagem Avenida in 2025 and Inner Space at Lisbon Architecture Triennale, MNAC in 2019, among others.
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.
