Atlas Paraíso, hoje. [Paradise, today.]

Paraíso, hoje. [Paradise, today.] becomes an Atlas: the curatorial team of the Pavilion of Portugal at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—The Venice Biennale invites to a series of conversations in Lisbon and Venice, marking the launch of an unprecedented publication—an open, collective study of the Portuguese territory today.

“Paraíso, hoje. [Paradise, today.] is not a nostalgic retreat but an active, collective act of thinking about landscape as a cultural construction. This Atlas extends that reflection, inviting ongoing interpretation.”


Developed as part of the official Portuguese representation, the Atlas is both a collective and critical study. Expanding on the pavilion’s curatorial research, it presents an ambitious collection of more than 700 images, including 36 contributions selected through an Open Call launched earlier this year. The public was invited to submit images of works, projects, or places across Portugal, building a thematic and participatory mapping of the contemporary landscape.

The curatorial team—architects Paula Melâneo, Pedro Bandeira, and Luca Martinucci, who are joined by landscape architect Catarina Raposo, and video artist Nuno Cera—have assembled this compendium to critically reflect on architectural practice at multiple scales, while proposing an optimistic vision of the territory. The Atlas is organised around evocative themes such as experience, regeneration, leisure, networks, return, cultivation, simulacrum, or fiction, each offering a lens through which to consider the idea of “Paradise” today, and includes further contributions by António Guerreiro, Aurora Carapinha, João Gomes da Silva, João Nunes, Luís Paulo Faria Ribeiro, Maria Manuel Oliveira, and Nuno da Luz.

Designed by vivóeusébio and published by Circo de Ideias, the book is bilingual (Portuguese and English) and composed of two volumes, one of images and another of texts. It accompanies the immersive installation on view at the Pavilion of Portuguese, at Fondaco Marcello in Venice, where real images, interactive technologies and artificial intelligence, intersect with collective memory and imagination to construct an allegory of Paradise. On view, though November 23.

Book presentation and panel discussion at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, November 8, 2025.
To mark the launch of Atlas Paraíso, hoje., on November 8 in Lisbon, the curatorial team, joined by contributors, invites the public to an afternoon of conversations at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale. The event will explore what meaning the word paradise might still hold in the cultural construction of the contemporary landscape, at a time when territorial planning—or its absence—seems to yield to conflicting interests that threaten environmental balance on a planetary scale.

For this debate, authors from a range of disciplines—architecture, landscape architecture, photography, art, and literature—have been invited to discuss what we can still do to avert ecological collapse.

Panel I: with the participation of Duarte Belo, António Guerreiro, João Nunes, and moderated by Catarina Raposo. 

Panel II: with the participation of Paulo Catrica, João Gomes da Silva, Maria Manuel Oliveira, and moderated by Pedro Bandeira.

Saturday, November 8, 2025, 3–7pm, at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale / Palácio Sinel de Cordes, Campo de Santa Clara 142, 1100-474 Lisboa / Entrance is free. Conversation in Portuguese.

Curators’ tours, book presentation, and conversations in the Portuguese Pavilion during the Finissage of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—The Venice Biennale, November 20–23, 2025

On Saturday, November 22, at 3pm, the curatorial team will present the publication Atlas Paraíso, hoje, followed by a critical reading by architect and researcher Inês Moreira.

At 4pm, a panel discussion will further explore the themes addressed by the pavilion in relation to the contemporary landscape in Portugal, featuring João Nunes, Luigi Latini, and Catarina Raposo, moderated by Luca Zilio.

Curators’ tours will be offered in the exhibition, in Portuguese, English and Italian, on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 11am; on Friday, November 21, 2025 at 5pm; on Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 11am; and on Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 11am;

The Pavilion
Paraíso, hoje. Pavilion of Portugal at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition—The Venice Biennale / Curators: Paula Melâneo, Pedro Bandeira, Luca Martinucci / Deputy Curators: Catarina Raposo and Nuno Cera / Commissioner: Direção-Geral das Artes (Directorate-General for the Arts) / Organisation: Ministry of Culture of Portugal / Fondaco Marcello, Calle del Traghetto, San Marco 3415, Venice / Open through November 23, 2025. Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–6pm, free admission. 

The Atlas
Atlas Paraíso, hoje. Editors: Pedro Bandeira (coord.), Paula Melâneo, Luca Martinucci / Deputy Editors: Catarina Raposo, Nuno Cera / With contributions by António Guerreiro, Aurora Carapinha, Catarina Raposo, João Gomes da Silva, João Nunes, Luca Martinucci, Luís Paulo Faria Ribeiro, Maria Manuel Oliveira, Nuno Cera, Nuno da Luz, Paula Melâneo e Pedro Bandeira. / Publisher: Circo de Ideias / Graphic Design: vivóeusébio / Format: Two volumes / Languages: Bilingual (Portuguese/English) / ISBN: ISBN 978-989-36040-4-5 

For more about Paraíso, hoje., future iterations and conversations, visit us at paraisohoje.pt , or contact us at hello@paraisohoje.pt. For press inquiries and to rsvp for the press conference and round table, contact us at press@paraisohoje.pt.