The Built Ocean
EAHN Thematic Conference
Porto, 10–13 September 2025
Convenor: André Tavares, Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto
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?
Key Dates
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
Registration
Registration is now open, please follow this link: Register here.
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.
Conference Programme
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
15.00—17.00 Workshops and informal meetings, FAUP
21.00—22.30 Opening keynote, Cinema Passos Manuel
Thursday, September 11, 2025
9.00—10.15 Welcome and opening session
10.15—12.00 Resources and Cultures
12.00—14.00 Lunch break
14.15—16.00 Ecosystems and Spaces
16.00—16.30 Coffee break
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17.00—19.00 Sunset by the sea
Leça Swimming Pool
Friday, September 12, 2025
9.00—10.45 Animals and Images
10.45—11.15 Coffee break
11.15—13.00 Habitats and Connectors
13.00—15.00 Lunch break
15.00—16.00 Closing keynote
16.00—17.00 Conference closing
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19.30—22.00 Conference dinner, registration required
Casa da Música
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
Atlantic Wind Farm
Eighteen kilometers offshore from Viana do Castelo, hovering 100 meters above the seabed, and towering 125 meters high, three wind turbines make up the WindFloat Atlantic energy farm. Operating since 2020, an underwater cable connects the complex to the onshore operation and management center. The visit will include the bus trip from Porto to Viana do Castelo and a boat ride to the vicinity of the three towers.
9.00–15.00
Meeting point at FAUP
Conducted by Ivo Poças Martins
Fee €210
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 FAUP
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
Cinema Passos Manuel
Rua de Passos Manuel, 137
4000-385 Porto
Leça Swimming Pools
Avenida Liberdade
4450-716 Leça da Palmeira
Casa da Música
Avenida da Boavista, 604
4149-071 Porto
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, Emilio Ambasz Institute, Museum of Modern Art, New York
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
Cláudia Soares
Diego Beja Inglez de Souza