Living architecture – The case of the Iberian chalcolithic enclosures

Ana Vale (CITCEM/University of Porto) This presentation aims to address the multiple relationships and rhythms that emerge in (and through) architecture, understood as living architecture, and to approach the immersion of building practices in everyday life. Looking into the architectural detail of the walled enclosure of Castanheiro do Vento (Northern Portugal), it intends to analyse the different relationships between the architecture and the life of the communities and their territories as well as how the construction of the enclosure occurred mainly during its "use" or inhabitation. This approach will accentuate the details that indicate seasonal and cyclical time, which were probably celebrated, accentuated and formalised through intentional depositional practices, and to the different rhythms and duration of architecture – from the construction of stone and earth walls to the rapid deposition of things. Through this line of enquiry, how objects and things acquire different configurations during the construction and use of the space, according to the specific places and correspondences in which they are found, will be questioned. Thus, it intends to study the relationship between design and inhabitants; and to think about the flow of things, of humans, and of non-human beings, in order to approach walled enclosures as living architecture.