Supported by Ek Biç Ye İç, Pláka Porto and Kadıköy Municipality.

Germinator is a public sprouting cabinet, a self-irrigating system made up of low-heat terracotta pieces where seeds germinate. Easy to use and low cost, Germinator invites citizens to learn about and participate in the germination and cultivation of quality seeds. The seeds produced here will go on to be used as a food source for the community, encouraging self-sufficient food supplies, which in turn reduces dependency on human-made energy sources.

The seed is an age-old symbol of change and renewal – from ancient Egyptians’ germination of seeds in the coffins of the deceased as an expression of life springing from death, to the Persian New Year (Nowruz) ritual of spring renewal through germinating lentils. In this tradition, Germinator is a symbol of a new beginning for the way in which human beings interact with their environment, and a new era of how human beings can choose to grow and source their food.

It affirms modes of commoning around a nutrient-dense genetic heritage, and architecture’s role in generating self-sufficient food security systems.

SKREI (Portugal) is a workshop for integrative architecture, where project design, building construction and applied-materials research combine into an experimental practice. Here, overarching notions of the human body and ecology are weighed against the specifics of local culture and resources.

The work of SKREI has been showcased across several cultural institutions including the Gulbenkian Foundation Museum, Lisbon (2016); Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon (2017); Belém Cultural Center, Lisbon (2018); Cité du Vin, Bordeaux (2018); the City Museum of Porto (2019); Maia Forum (2019); José de Guimarães International Art Center, Guimarães (2019); Matadero, Madrid (2019) and Royal Academy of Arts, London (2019).

SKREI was founded in 2009 by Francisco Fonseca and Pedro Jervell, who have since presented their work and taught in various institutions such as the Royal Academy of British Architects, London (2017), the Venice Biennale (British Pavilion, 2017), Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel (2018) and Columbia University, New York (2019).

Sofia Magalhães (Portugal) is a ceramicist living and working in Lisbon. In 2004 she began her training in ceramics at ar.co (arts and communications centre), pursuing it in Florence and in the Tuscan countryside. In 2011, she was selected for the Illustration Prize for Young Creators as part of the duo Com Amoras with Margarida Fernandes, presented at Rotterdam Film Festival and at Napa Gallery in Finland. Com Amoras also presented the film na rua do açúcar (2011), which premiered at FIMFA – International Festival of Puppets and Animated Forms. Between 2013 and 2019, Magalhães presented retrato at Arquivo Fotográfico de Lisboa, Lisbon; Coser: Cozer (with Ana Gonçalves) at Sismógrafo space, Porto; Uivar na neve at Galeria 56ARTES Lisbon, and Chaconne at Galeria Diferença, Lisbon. She presently collaborates with the brand 8950 in drawing and building zero-waste ceramic pieces.

Francisca Sottomayor (Portugal) studied Communication Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto (FBAUP), completing the last year of her degree in 2007 at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Between 2008 and 2010, she worked at By – a communication agency. In 2010 she was selected for the Inov Art (2010/11) art exchange programme, taking her to Rio de Janeiro, where she worked in the studio of the artist Carlito Carvalhosa and with the photographer Mari Stockler. After working as a freelancer, Sottomayor returned to FBAUP for her Masters Degree in Editorial Design. Since 2016, she has been a designer and editor of Nativa magazine at Esporão, one of the largest wholly organic producers of wine and olive oil in Europe. Sottomayor has a keen interest in the issues surrounding sustainable production and sustainable living.