Polis: The Politics of the City
Polis: The Politics of the City
Curator and moderator: João Seixas
As the French philosopher and urban planner Paul Virilio wrote, “there is no politics without the city. There is no reality of history without the history of the city. The city is the greatest political form in history.” The city is a collective construction where a myriad of interests, strategies, and powers intersect and confront each other. A complexity that, obviously, demands politics. In the Aristotelian sense, the polis is above all politics and citizenship – each individual is part of a space and a community, having the possibility, or even the responsibility, to participate and contribute to the common good.
In the contemporary city, do these axioms remain valid? What new public spaces and vehicles of representation, social action, and political affirmation are needed for the cities of the future? A debate with architect Paola Viganò and geographer João Ferrão.
4 FEB 7:00 p.m.
Urbs: The Body of the City
Patrícia Melo, Salvador Rueda
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What kind of body does a city have? What elements compose it and how does it evolve and transform? Does the way urban spaces and systems are structured affect society, the economy, and the rights of each collective? Faced with these challenges, how can we reorganise urban structures to make daily life more lived and shared?
25 FEB 7:00 p.m.
Civitas: The Flows of the City
Fátima Vieira, Richard Sennett
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The city is a strong network of millions of ties – fragile ties – because they are human. What strengthens, or on the other hand, what weakens the ties between the population in a city? What elements and conditions allow for the formation of heterogeneous, dynamic, and tolerant urban communities, especially in the face of the current crisis of urbanism and unequal access to housing and the city itself?
11 MAR 7:00 p.m.
Polis: The Politics of the City
Paola Viganò, João Ferrão
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What new public spaces and vehicles of representation, social action, and political affirmation are needed for the cities of the future? A debate with architect Paola Viganò and geographer João Ferrão.
11 MAR 2026
WED 19:00
Free admission*
Duration 2h
*By pre-booking or collecting your ticket 15 minutes before the event (limited to the venue's to capacity).
On the day of the event, pre-bookings that have not been collected will be made available 15 minutes before the start of the event.
In English
BIOGRAPHIES
Paola Viganò is an architect and professor at IAU Venice and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. She is one of the leading voices in European debates on major issues in contemporary urban development, both in theoretical and practical work. She heads the Urbanism Laboratory (Lab-U), with research focused on new forms of urbanization and ecological renewal of cities. Together with Bernardo Secchi, she founded the architecture studio Studio, responsible for urban plans in cities such as Bergamo, Siena, Antwerp, Lille, Montpellier, and, more recently, Grand Paris. She has received several awards, including the Grand Prix d’Urbanisme and the gold medal for Italian architecture.
João Ferrão is a geographer and researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, and one of the most respected voices in urban and territorial thinking in Portugal. He has been a consultant to the OECD and the European Commission, president of the Portuguese Association for Regional Development, secretary of state for spatial planning and cities, and vice-rector of the University of Lisbon. He regularly collaborates with local authorities and local development associations. He coordinates the SDG Local platform, an initiative that aims to promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals among Portuguese municipalities.
