Machado Costa

Exhibition project for the Lisbon Architecture Triennale

Samt & Seide is an installation designed to host the exhibition of the 1st Triennial of Architecture in Lisbon, held at Cordoaria.

The exhibition presents a selection of recent architectural works and projects, organised through a spatial installation of suspended fabrics. These fabrics divide the exhibition space into distinct areas and atmospheres. Varying in opacity, transparency, weight, texture, colour, and movement, they create a sequence of spaces with different characters. The resulting labyrinthine configuration alternately reveals and conceals the exhibited content, shaping the visitor’s experience throughout the exhibition.

At the end of the route, the installation opens onto a café and a small auditorium, providing spaces for gathering and discussion.

The project draws on Café Samt & Seide, the seminal installation by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich presented at the Berliner Funkturm in 1927, reinterpreting the use of textiles as an architectural device to define space, movement, and perception.