Project Global explores how logistics shapes the built environment, this year looking at fish and cork in Portugal, both part of the natural riches of the land, culture, and traditions. Examining Portugal within European and global trade and transportation networks, including the European Atlantic Corridor and the country’s connections across the Atlantic Ocean. It investigates contemporary shifts in the global production and distribution networks of both highly regulated natural resources, and their spatial implications. Part 1: Documentation traces and describes the landscapes, buildings and spaces of fish and cork supply chains. Part 2: Projection extrapolates reflections on future change, with the design of a set of architectural projects.    

Talking Fish & Cork explores the spatial implications of the fish and cork industries in Portugal through the lens of architectural spaces and their related objects. It consists of a series of conversations between architects and experts found along the logistics chain of these two natural resources. Departing from an object selected by the invited guests, a discussion unfolds to discover more about the processes, trends, territories, and buildings associated with fish and cork.

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The documentary film Punching & Canning captures a day in two Portuguese factories producing cork stoppers and canned sardines. 

The Carbon Bank operates as a decentralized network of local branches across Europe, that provide carbon accountability, real-time ecological monitoring, and public trust through carbon accounting, directly within municipal territories.

A nomadic test kitchen travels Portugal’s coast to make the shift from a fish-based diet to a kelp-based diet desirable, reimagining national cuisine through seasonal harvests, local partnerships, and regenerative fishing practices.

A source-based fish auction market makes ecological variations tangible and actionable,  based on precision fishing, and technological performance, transforming the wild-caught fishery market into a new bidding model.

Kelp farms provide a reliable source of sustainable food, sequester carbon, and support marine biodiversity, establishing a productive model for climate-resilient coastal economies.

Expanded agglomerated cork, made from pruning waste, virgin, and fire-damaged cork, delivers high-performance insulation for buildings, shifting the focus of the cork industry from stoppers to sustainable construction materials and providing biobased insulation across Europe.

In a new three-year harvesting cycle, knowledge-based agroforestry practices focused on shrub management and fire protection ensure the long-term preservation and expansion of mature cork forests, while supporting a profitable farm model that integrates both high productivity and high biodiversity.

Farmville is a rural revitalization project in Villa Cha that challenges conventional models of ownership and labor by transforming traditional family farming into a communal-based system, blurring the lines between making a living, living sustainably, and reimagining how communities are built.