Terra. A term used to define the planet we live on, the soil we walk on, and the raw material for the most diverse works. From it derives the word territory, which, beyond its symbolic meaning in shaping culture and worldviews, is also the foundation of any settlement and of nature itself. The power of all the meanings this word carries is taken as the title of the 6th Lisbon Architecture Triennale, which explores themes concerning the human relationship with its context and the revolutionary processes spanning the most diverse scales of architecture.
In Ailton Krenak's view, architecture covers the Earth with a sensitive and invisible layer. It is through the thin concrete coating of sidewalks that we lose our sense of belonging to the world and our perception of the identity of the shared territory. Through these words, the Indigenous leader demonstrates how we have lost our sense of belonging in nature and disconnected from what is most essential to our existence. In a completely different context, the French also alluded to the earth when they declared, “Sous les pavés, la plage!” (Under the paving stones, the beach!) during the May 1968 protests in Paris—an action that reclaimed the power of collective movement to materialize an idea.
