Presentation of the publication “Inviting Life” by Stella Rahola and Roger Paez

On Saturday, November 16, the “Inviting Life” publication will be presented at the Pavilion. This will be an opportunity to explore the project carried out at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in June 2023, an ephemeral intervention that proposes a new perspective on the transformation of its materials by natural effects. This work, led by Stella Rahola Matutes and Roger Paez, along with students from the Master’s in Ephemeral Architecture and Temporary Spaces at Elisava, is based on the idea that matter is never stable because it is alive. Through the study of travertine, mosses, and lichens colonizing its surfaces, the intervention invited nature to actively participate in the architectural space.

The publication documents the creative process behind this intervention, combining texts by Vicenç Altaió and Ona Bros with photographs by Aleix Plademunt, which capture the evolution of the Pavilion and the impact of organic agents on the architecture. This project highlights the tension between the immobility associated with modernist spaces and the constant dynamics of change in natural matter, inviting reflection on how architecture can live and transform as it interacts with time and the natural environment.

The presentation will offer an opportunity to delve into this new vision of ephemeral architecture and its connection to natural processes, showing how matter and time can redefine architectural space.