Taking advantage of the distinctive industrial identity of the Garagem Sul – a former garage located within the Centro Cultural de Belém, in Lisbon (Portugal) – “Building Stories” explores the hidden stories of architectures before their full completion. Curated by Amélia Brandão Costa and Rodrigo da Costa Lima, the show features a series of installations designed by three renowned architecture practices: Maio Studio, architecten de vylder vinck taillieu and Ricardo Bak Gordon.

Highlighting the unorthodox beauty of architecture’s rawness, the exhibition intends to illustrate the behind the scenes of a building under construction by focusing on architectural fragments and familiar sensations, such as the smell of fresh cement or the sound of heavy machinery. As a result, “Building Stories” stands as a collection of abstract spaces or microenvironments that dialogue with each other and that depict the projects – achieved and only dreamt – of the selected architects.

Oscillating between a mood board and a 1:1 render, one of the projects developed by Barcelona-based architecture firm Maio Studio proposes a collage of architectural elements: Here reality is questioned by merging an imaginary composition with an existing structure. Gent-based architecten de vylder vinck taillieu’s “Architecture as Such”, on their side, focus on the essence of architecture. Thought as a series of sculptural readymades and assemblages of pre-packaged materials that can be found on building sites, the installation looks into the details that compose architecture. Finally, the Blue House developed by Lisbon-based Ricardo Bak Gordon stands as “a real physical expression of something not yet built or misplaced”, explain the curators. Presented as a 1:1 model of a house currently under construction in Grandola (Portugal), the volume hosts a selection of drawings, sketches and small-scale models.

Thought as an immersive ensemble, the exhibition also features a sound installation by Portuguese artist Tomas da Cunha Ferreira that adds another element to the complex layering of sensations that one can experience when living an architectural space.