Project
The housing crisis in Lisbon is reaching a breaking point, driving people to the streets to demand the right to affordable homes. This is not just a local issue but a global challenge intertwined with social inequality, migration, and the ecological crisis. As social constellations, rituals, and dynamics shift rapidly, pressing questions are emerging: How can the right to housing be ensured? What kind of society do we want to build?
From September 25 to October 6, 2024, the festival Uma Revolução Assim—a festival by the Goethe-Institut Lisboa in partnership with Culturgest, curated by Julia Albani and supported by many collaborators—invited collective dialogue and reflection on alternative ways of living and inhabiting. At the scenographic heart of the festival was Constructlab’s Walking Stage, an installation specifically designed to serve as a dynamic platform for conversation and exchange.
This mobile stage transformed into a parliament, radio station, open-air cinema, kitchen, or dining room, hosting a series of lunchtime talks, debates, panel discussions, and live podcasts. Traveling through Lisbon’s districts—Arroios, Avenidas Novas, Marvila, Ajuda, and Penha de França—it became a space where ideas were shared, and new housing models were imagined.
While the logistics of moving the stage through the city, setting it up, and breaking it down were expected challenges, the project highlighted the complexities of engaging citizens directly, especially those affected by the housing crisis. It showed how planning involvement in theory differs from activating it in practice, offering valuable lessons on bridging ideas and lived realities.
For the makers and members of Constructlab, focused on gathering and conviviality, the value of shared rituals became strikingly clear. A simple act—reconfiguring the benches from an agora to a dining setup—proved profoundly meaningful. It fostered a sense of collective agency, as participants shaped the space together. These moments underscored the power of adaptability, collaboration, and communal effort in fostering deeper connections.
The festival’s essence also lies in its refusal to be measured by crowd size. Events like Uma Revolução Assim rarely attract masses, but their authenticity stems from the effort to bring diverse people together to strengthen a claim. By embodying the principle of critical mass, the gathering somehow transforms into a political act—a living declaration of solidarity and shared purpose.
The idea of the Walking Stage itself gained new resonance through this process. Its mobility meant that the audience didn’t just come to the stage—the audience moved with it, with the gathering, through the city. This act of movement transformed the stage into a living manifestation, blurring the lines between performance and protest. In a way, it brought participants back to where they started: together, in motion, creating space for shared purpose and collective action.
Through its journey, the Walking Stage brought diverse voices together, fostering open dialogue and critical thinking on pressing topics like housing, community, and the need for common spaces. As it moved through the city, it stood as a symbol of the adaptability and collaboration essential to reimagining a more just society.
