The "Aquatic Channels" exhibition invites researcher and architect Paulo Tavares to discuss the concept of “reparation architecture.”

In this talk, Tavares explores recent architectural and curatorial projects to speculate on the potential concept of “reparation architecture.” Architecture seeking to redress structural injustices is generally labelled “social architecture.” Arguably the invention of this concept of the social, within which architectural knowledge has been instrumental, is the product of modern-colonial frameworks defined along class-based and racialized categories that objectify subalternized communities as sites of study and intervention – the “underdeveloped,” the “backward,” the “uncivilized,” the “primitive.” Dwelling on the concept of reparation may open new visions for spatial practices outside the managerial, disciplinary, positivist frame that still hunts architecture, a field of knowledge historically grounded on the ideology that its practice is inherently “good,” working for beautification, betterment, improvement, civilization, progress, development. Towards a concept of “reparation architecture” can enable spatial practices to be conceived as redressing and redrawing social, historic and political bounds beyond charity, help, state patronage, philanthropy and humanitarianism."

Paulo Tavares is an architect, researcher and writer based in South America. His work has been featured in exhibitions and publications worldwide, including Harvard Design Magazine, the Oslo Architecture Trienniale, the Istanbul Design Biennial, and the São Paulo Biennial. He is the author of the books Forest Law (2014), Memória da Terra (2018), and Des-Habitat (2019).