Garagem Sul, located at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre (MAC/CCB) in Lisbon, is a project space that was transformed from a former car repair shop and parking facility into an experimental venue for contemporary art and architecture. The space hosts Garage Encounters, an exhibition project that questions whether the meaning of architecture exists solely in completed buildings.
Traditionally, buildings have been regarded as the essence of architecture, while other elements were considered secondary, decorative, or peripheral. Garage Encounters expands the concept of architecture beyond physical structures to include space, composition, exhibitions, and public experience. In other words, while a building is the tangible form of architecture, architecture encompasses spatial arrangement, materials, lighting, circulation, and visitor experience.
Approximately 80% of the framework was reconstructed and reassembled using materials from previous exhibitions. By embedding accumulated cultural traces within the current space, the exhibition operates as a public architectural act. Visitors are free to enter, experience, discuss, learn, and engage directly with architecture and space. Garage Encounters thus extends the meaning of architecture beyond a building-centric perspective through exhibition design, spatial composition, and public interaction.
This approach reflects the idea that architecture should not be confined to physical buildings but should extend to spatial experience and public engagement. Architect Carlo Scarpa exemplified this approach by focusing on exhibition design, demonstrating that exhibitions were not mere decoration but acts of public engagement situated within political and cultural contexts. Architect and designer Lilly Reich similarly expanded spatial experience and social participation through exhibition production. From this perspective, exhibitions are not merely places for displaying content, but public acts of architecture where visitors actively experience, learn, and interact.
The inaugural exhibition at Garagem Sul, Interspecies, embodies this theoretical approach. It introduces more-than-human perspectives into the world of architecture, offering visitors the opportunity to explore history and the infinite narratives that constitute it.
Project: Garage Encounters / Location: MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre, Lisbon, Portugal / Architect: BUREAU (Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, Galliane Zamarbide) / Concept design: Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta / Project execution: Daniel Zamarbide / Carine Pimenta (project managers), Lujza Lehocká, Finia Sonderegger, Valentin Racine, Romane Guillou / Construction supervision: Carine Pimenta / Publication drawings: Valentin Racine / Curator: Mariana Pestana / Producers: Ideawood, Metalúrgica Frontal / Graphic design: Joana Lourencinho / Use: exhibition gallery / Program: semi-permanent scenography, exhibition and furniture design / Gross floor area: 2,200m² / Completion: 2025.4 / Photograph: ©Dylan Perrenoud (courtesy of the architect)
