In the face of global challenges, we often doubt: whether small individual actions and changes in habits contribute to significant systemic transformations? How can architects and designers solutions enhance these changes?  We invite you to take a closer look at these questions in an event featuring the practices of two architects. Architect Slavis Poczebut from MEKADO Studio (Germany) will present “How to utilise the potential of urban areas to deliver healthier environments?” and share how micro-mobility improvements can contribute to broader urban solutions. In the following presentation architect Francisco Fonseca from Pedrêz Studio (Portugal) will expand more on interdisciplinary and experimental practices and present his latest works on the intersection between fashion, architecture and ecology, 

The discussion, moderated by landscape architect Povilas Maroz after the presentations, will consider realistic and philosophical scenarios for the future of the built environment, and will address the agential nature of architects’ and designers’ work in the creation of a more sustainable and socially equitable environment.

Slavis Poczebutas is an Architect and Urbanist and the Managing Director of MEKADO in Berlin. He is also the founder of DOMUM urban mobility, a start-up that is part of a movement for urban transformation in the age of new mobility. Before founding MEKADO, he worked as Project Director at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) alongside Rem Koolhaas. Previously he worked as a Project Leader in the international multidisciplinary design firm ARUP, both in London and Hong Kong. MEKADO is an international studio designing spatial innovations in urban planning, architecture, and interior design, with a strong focus on social and ecological integration.

Pedrêz was founded in 2020 in Porto, Portugal by Matilde Cabral and Francisco Fonseca from the merger of the fashion development studio Fashion Office and the experimental architecture workshop Skrei, with works presented in institutions such as Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Columbia University, Royal Academy of Arts, International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2018 and 2023) and Istanbul Design Triennale (2020), among others. Pedrêz emerges as a workshop for applied research in the areas of systemic ecology and housing subsistence, with ongoing projects: Cápsulas, designation for nomadic peri-urban off-grid units; Studere Sativa, a multidisciplinary studio for the study and development of constructions using cultivable materials; and Air-Water-Land Unit applied research on water self-sufficiency and territorial geoengineering.

The event is the second lecture of the “Spatial Adventures #5” series, organised by the The Department of Interior Design of Vilnius Academy of Arts. 

When: September 11, 7pm.

Where: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Malūnų str. 5, Vilnius

The lecture will be held in English.

The event will be filmed and photographed. Videos and/or photographs taken during the event may be published on the Organiser’s social networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube), website, as well as other advertising or information dissemination media. 

The project is part of the European Alliance “Circular Design”, co-funded by the European Union.