The Built Ocean

Architects require solid ground on which to base their practice, yet oceans have always been a key element shaping the history of architecture and the built environment. This themed conference aims to shift the focus of architectural history from the land to the sea. It will address the planet’s bodies of salt water either as areas of increasing urbanization (through the building of structures such as underwater cables, oil rigs, windmills, etc.), as connectors between space and cultures (navigation routes for people and resources, transported in the form of knowledge, labour, and materials), or as an ecosystem functioning, in connection with the land, as an essential life-support system (defining climatic patterns, providing resources from food to raw materials, and securing services from carbon sequestration to large-scale habitats). The conference aims to bring together scholars representing a wide range of interdisciplinary knowledge and sets out to cover a broad chronological scope, from deep history and archaeological sources to more recent accounts of ecological decline and potential futures. Where is the architecture of the sea? To what extent does the built environment impact saltwater landscapes? What reciprocal impacts do seascapes have on the built environment?

Book of Abstracts

You can download the conference book of abstracts through this link. 

Registration

If you wish to attend the conference you can register last minute through this link. Conference dinner and parallel programmes might be booked out.

The opening keynote lecture Ten Myths of Critical Ocean Studies, by Kimberley Peters and Philip Steinberg, will be free entrance and will not require registration.

Call for papers (closed)

The oceans that shape our planet are the focus of this conference. Its goal is to frame the current state of architectural research in relation to these bodies of salt water, to broaden horizons, and to unpack ongoing projects that emphasize a fundamental shift in our perception of both the oceans and architecture. Climate change has publicly exposed the fundamental role of the oceans in balancing the planet’s ecosystems, a fragile equilibrium that is under threat: there is a relationship between the ongoing environmental destruction that is taking place and the increasing exploitation of water bodies. Such dynamics might be understood as a recent phenomenon, yet their conceptual roots are imbued with historical depth and architectural reasoning.

Convened at a moment when architectural history is exploring aspects of globality, this conference provides space in which to view the discipline through an ecological lens, addressing non-Western systems of knowledge, decolonizing perspectives, and welcoming topics from around the world with an interdisciplinary frame of reference. Ocean-centred scholarship has been dominated by disciplines other than architecture, and building practices happening in the ocean are often overlooked. Architectural history has the potential to combine knowledge, connect different expertise, and address pressing ecological concerns. The conference aims to understand a material history of the oceans, where architectural objects are to be interpreted through a variety of disciplines, from science and technology to humanities and culture, from ecology to law and engineering. We encourage scholars from all backgrounds to contribute to an interdisciplinary discussion. The ocean is not a void, and architectural history is a unique form of knowledge that can be used to chart it. 

We have established a broad chronological scope for the conference, from deep history and archaeological sources to more recent accounts of ecological decline and potential futures. Oceans have been recently urbanized, but there is a long history of oceanic construction providing a standpoint from which to reassess and reconceptualize the relation between architecture and marine environments. While the shore might provide safe ground upon which architectural historians can lay the foundations of their subjects, we are seeking papers that address liquid dimensions rather than the land. As an edge, the shoreline is not a closed boundary, and we aim to identify the connectivity between land and sea. We encourage scholars to position their research such that it reflects the ocean’s perspective and to understand the impacts of building practices on intertidal areas, on the water column, and even out in the deep sea.

The conference seeks papers that focus on processes of transformation and change, and address the following questions through a variety of historical lenses:

— Oceans as areas of urbanization:
* Structures above the sea such as windmills, underwater cables, oil rigs, and a large panoply of floating structures whose existence relies on their direct relation to the sea, rather than on land reclamation
* Artificial islands and floating constructions
* Underwater structures and concrete or fictional explorations of how to inhabit or simply build in aquatic environments
* Mythologies and world views from societies without hard barriers between land and sea, microcosms and philosophies of space deriving from the ocean space

— Oceans as connectors between space and cultures:
* Architecture and built or unbuilt devices for reconceptualizing the ocean space
* Tourism networks and underwater archaeology, from ancient cultures to modern remains
* Ships as a form that inhabits the ocean (related more to ocean history than to maritime history), and naval architecture as a source of information about ocean dynamics, currents, and climate and as a means to question terrestrial assumptions
* Bodies of water as infrastructural supports, navigation routes for people and resources, transported in the form of knowledge, labour, and materials
* The representation of the oceans through architectural means, and its aesthetic consequences

— Oceans as ecosystems:
* Architecture as a tool for resource extraction or resource management
* The relations between currents, oceanographic conditions, natural systems, and species and major architectural practices and forms
* Constructions and interventions in intertidal areas benefiting from their specific habitats and engaging with oceanic species

Abstracts will be evaluated primarily on the basis of their relevance to the conference theme; innovative methods, interdisciplinary exploration, and sound research will also be taken into account. Contributions should be the result of original research and should not have been previously published or be in the process of being published elsewhere.

We welcome and encourage proposals from researchers from around the world, at any career stage and representing a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds and methodological approaches to architecture and the built environment—including but not limited to marine biology, ecology, literary studies, history, geography, archaeology, anthropology, or media studies.

For additional queries, please send an email to fish@arq.up.pt

Conference Programme

Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Fishing Architecture: Display and Discussion
15:00-16:30
Faculty of Architecture of Porto
André Tavares and Fish-A Team

CONFERENCE OPENING
21:00—23:00
Cinema Passos Manuel
— Ten Myths of Critical Ocean Studies
 Kimberley Peters and Philip Steinberg

Thursday, September 11, 2025
9:00—10:15
Welcome coffee and opening session

RESOURCES
10:15—12:00
Session chair, Paul Bouet
—A Whale a Day
Andrew Toland, University of Technology Sydney
—Oil Ecologies
Maryia Rusak Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
—Fluid Boundaries
Qingyun Lin, University of Toronto
—Ordering the Invisible
Pari Riahi, University of Massachusetts Amherst
—Tapping the Ocean’s Thermal Battery
Jonathan Galka, Harvard University

CULTURES
Session chair, Panayotis Tournikiotis
10:15—12:00
— Galician Ocean and Architecture
Carmen Fabregat-Nodar, Óscar Fuertes Dópico, 
Iago Fernández Penedo, University of A Coruña
—Making Waves
Ciro Miguel, ETH Zurich
—Islands of Void
Jared Fantasia, Nicola D’Addario, Faculty 
of Architecture of the University of Porto
—The Sea of Civilizations
Sasha Zanko, IIT College of Architecture
—The Black Sea
Galena Sardamova, Harvard GSD

12:00—14:00 Lunch break

HABITATS
14:15—16:00
Session chair, Helen Rozwadowski
—Floating Concrete
Mark Crinson, University of London
—Continental Shelf Life
Janno Martens, KU Leuven / Flanders Architecture Institute
—Future City, Sea City
Pollyanna Rhee, University of Illinois
—Before Ocean Urbanization
Matthew McKenzie, University of Connecticut
—From the Valley to the Island
Angus Taylor, University of Brighton

SPACES
14:15—16:00
Session chair, Christy Anderson
—Ice Islands and the Architecture 
of Cold Colonialism
Michael Faciejew, Dalhousie University
— Building an Empire upon the Ocean
Antonieta Reis Leite, Centro de Estudos Sociais, University of Coimbra
—A Marshall Plan for the Ocean
Óskar Arnórsson, Columbia University
—Bridges of Power and Play
Solmaz Sadeghi, Royal Danish Academy
—The Border as the Last Maritime Infrastructure
Antonio Giráldez López, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

16:00—16:30 Coffee break

SUNSET
18:00—19:00 Sunset by the sea
Leça Swimming Pool
(bus departs from FAUP at 17:00 and returns at 20:00)

* Extra programme
Around 19:00 we will be welcoming the book presentation, published by the Canadian Centre for Architecture. It will be the occasion for a conversation with Giovana Borasi (CCA Director and Chief Curator), Mariana Pestana (contributor to the book), Pedro Baía (Circo de Ideias), and other friends and colleagues.

Friday, September 12, 2025
ANIMALS
10:15—12:00
Session chair, Diego Inglez de Souza
—Split, Salted, and Staged
L. Sasha Gora, University of Augsburg
—Exploring Historical Perspectives on Ocean Narratives
Ana Roque, André Carvalho, Diogo Falcato
University of Lisbon and Nova University of Lisbon
—Another Bone in the Wall
Nina Vieira, Rui Venâncio, Joana Baço, Cristina Brito
Nova University of Lisbon and Peniche Municipality
—Building an Enclosed Coastal Sea
Michael Chiarappa, Bayshore Center
—Sardines and the History of Guanabara Bay
Eduardo Augusto Costa, University of São Paulo

IMAGES
10:15—12:00
Session chair, Mari Lending
— To See the Oceans
Fiona Lim Tung, University of Waterloo
—Wave Architectures
Clemens Finkelstein, KHK global dis:connect, LMU Munich
—Environing the Polar Oceans
Aniella Sophie Goldinger, Technische Universität Berlin
—Kill boxes, Vertical Worlds, Mare Nullius
Urtzi Grau, University of Technology Sydney
—Oceanic Monuments
Erik Langdalen, Oslo School of Architecture and Design

12:00—14:00 Lunch break

ECOSYSTEMS
14:15—16:00
Session chair, Carson Chan
—Nuclear Power and Birdwatching
Natália Petková, Paris Malaquais
—Whaling in Inuit Nunangat
Samuel Dubois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
—Architectural Commons in Fishing Villages
Azmah Arzmi, University Malaysia Sarawak
—Building with the Sea
Teresa Serrano Aviles, University of East London
—Liquid Histories of Risk
Pritam Dey, University of California

CONNECTORS
14:15—16:00
Session chair, Nancy Couling
—Water and Collective Memory
Stefania Rasile, Independent scholar
—Connections for Uncertain Futures
Jane Ruffino, Södertörns Högskola
—Suspension Zone
Ella Neumaier, EPF Lausanne
—Inbetweeners
T. Craig Sinclair, Syracuse University

16:00—16:30 Coffee break

CONFERENCE CLOSING
16:30—18:00
André Tavares, Christy Anderson, Paul Bouet, 
Carson Chan, Nancy Couling, Mari Lending,
Helen Rozwadowski, Diego Inglez de Souza 
and Panayotis Tournikiotis

CONFERENCE DINNER
19:30 Casa da Música
(by registration only)  

Saturday, September 13, 2025
9:00—15:00 Parallel tours, registration required, please note that there is a limited amount of places available for each tour. See programs below. Lunch bags will be provided.

Tours

Angeiras Fishing Entanglements
A small node in the complex web of Portugal’s coastal culture, Angeiras—located between the major industrial fishing ports of Leixões and Póvoa de Varzim—is a modest small-scale fishing community. From the fish-salting tanks etched into rocky outcrops on the coast to today’s handcrafted fishing gear, Angeiras bears traces of various marine economies. Contemporary fishing practices employ a variety of passive gear and traps to target species such as octopus, crab, and conger eel—often from zones intimately known to fisherfolk by name and seabed type. Its early twentieth-century stone-built warehouses provide a picturesque background for the activity. These entanglements reveal how traditional maritime practices and contemporary ecological challenges are deeply intertwined in space, memory, and material form. During our visit, we will explore the visible and invisible elements involved in the multi-species fisheries that built this distinctive landscape. Here, architecture is not limited to buildings—it includes fishing traps, navigation routes, habitats, and the choreography of boats, bodies, and marine species over the sand.

9:00–12:30
Meeting point at Planetário (near FAUP)
Conducted by André Tavares and Diego Inglez de Souza
Fee €60

Seaweed Landscapes
Nutritious, slimy, and strangely essential, seaweed has a long history of tying human life to marine ecologies. It is an ocean resource that can be used to feed populations and is transformed into industrial products, more recently emerging as a potential ally in the climate crisis. This field trip departs from Porto and heads north along the coast, following the path of various seaweed species whose biomass was harvested and laid over the dunes to transform sterile sand into fertile ground. We will visit masseira fields—excavated plots carved into the dunes, protected from sea winds and fertilized with seaweed—some still active, others fading into the landscape. Along the way, we will explore how these hybrid systems not only nourished the soil and sustained regional food cultures but also fed the growth of northern Portuguese cities—firstly through agriculture and later as a source of sand for the construction industry. This trip is not a nostalgic return to the past but rather a way to examine the way oceanic ecologies have been made to feed both people and concrete.

9:00–15:00
Meeting point at Planetário (near FAUP)
(bus will make a airport drop off by 14:30)
Conducted by Daniel Duarte Pereira
Fee €80

Could Be Worse
The acclaimed Worst Tours are walking debates that wander through Porto city center engaging visitors in a political discussion about its architecture, urban policies, and real estate, addressing topics such as the financialization of housing, gentrification, rich and poor, and living habits. Is there a future of alternatives for the contemporary city? Built examples range from nineteenth-century bourgeois houses to early twentieth-century Brazilian Palaces and tenement houses known as ilhas, meaning islands, which functioned as working-class “pockets hidden inside the blocks in former backyard gardens.” Heading to the far-east side of the city, the visit takes in a melting pot of former industrial and agricultural areas, still rural, still rusting, still lost, but undergoing a process of gentrification. Moving between railway viaducts and washing tanks and crossing paths with goats and cats, the visit is open-ended in response to the participants’ levels of energy and endurance. 

10:00–13:00
Meeting point at Jardim de São Lázaro
Conducted by Pedro Figueiredo
Fee €40

Venues

Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto
Via Panorâmica Edgar Cardoso 215
4150-564 Porto
Maps
How to get there

Cinema Passos Manuel
Rua de Passos Manuel, 137
4000-385 Porto
Maps

Leça Swimming Pools
Avenida Liberdade
4450-716 Leça da Palmeira
Maps

Casa da Música
Avenida da Boavista, 604
4149-071 Porto
Maps

Planetário
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto
Maps

Jardim de São Lázaro
Passeio de São Lázaro, 33
4000-507 Porto
Maps

Organization

General Chair

André Tavares, Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto

Scientific Committee

Christy Anderson, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto
Paul Bouet, EAHN representative, Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Est, Université Gustave Eiffel
Carson Chan 
Nancy Couling, Bergen School of Architecture, ETH Zurich 
Mari Lending, The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Helen Rozwadowski, University of Connecticut
André Tavares, Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto
Panayotis Tournikiotis, EAHN president, National Technical University of Athens 

Organizing Committee

Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto
Filipa de Castro Guerreiro
Rafael Sousa Santos
Claudia Soares
Diego Beja Inglez de Souza
Sónia Gabriel

Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism
Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto
Via Panorâmica Edgar Cardoso, 215
4150-564 Porto
Portugal

Key Dates

Call for papers: 1 October 2024
Call for papers’ deadline: 18 January 2025
Final selection of abstracts and notification of speakers: 28 March 2025
Registration opens: April 2025
Early-bird registration deadline: June 14, 2025
Registration for participants deadline: July 7, 2025
Programme launch: July 2025
Submission of final version of paper for discussion: July 2025
Final registration deadline: 31 August 2025
Conference dates: 10–13 September 2025

Rates and Registration

Standard: €175
Early bird: €150
Special student fee, including PhD candidates who will not be presenting papers: €50

The fee covers conference registration plus Thursday and Friday lunch and refreshments. Excursions are not included in the conference fee.
We are working to make a limited number of grants to cover registration and accommodation available to participants whose universities do not cover their travel costs.

Registration Terms and Conditions: All Registration must be completed on the conference official website. Participants are strongly encouraged to register as early bird to take advantage of the discounted registration fee. All registration fees are quoted in Euro (€). Payment in any other currency will not be accepted.

Payment will be available by credit card and bank transfer. Credit cards are accepted and can be made through online services on a secure server. In case of bank transfer, bank charges must be paid by the participants in addition to the registration fees (make sure to indicate the Congress name plus the full participant’s name). Invoices with an address in the European Union should be provided with a VAT Number. The invoicing address and VAT number can only be set up during the registration process.

Refund Policy: requests accepted until June 31st, 2025. The registration fee will be refunded with an administrative fee of 50 euros. There will be no reimbursement for requests made after July 1st, 2025, the registration may be used by another participant from the same institution.