Titles
A-C
D-G
H-K
L-O
P-S
T-Z
15-Minute Cities: Rethinking Mobility and Equity in Urban Pl...A Historical and Socio-Cultural Overview of Floating Structu...A Walk-Through Kolkata's Cemeteries and GhostsAn Interpretation of Cooperatives as a Way of Organizing Urb...Andalusian Influences: Water and the Revival of Narrow Stree...Applying Life Culture Meme System in Constructing Cultural L...Austerity, Neighborhood Mobilisation and ‘Commonplace Dive...Baukultur as Solution to Overtourism: Sustainable Urban Desi...Blurred Lines: The Transformation and Domination of Istanbul...Borders and Inclusion: Latin American Migrant Women Negotiat...Building Livable Cities through Intergenerational and Child-...Constructing Idealised Place Images through Official Discour...Creating Emotions to encounter Cultural Heritage supported b...Enhancing Urban User Experience: A Human-Centered Design Met...Enriching Well-being and Intercultural Engagement Through In...Evaluating the Long-Term Conservation Practices of Award-Win...Exploring Mining Heritage through the Tourist Area Life Cycl...Facilitating Stakeholder Learning and Knowledge Exchange for...Forms of Culture: Arts and Cultural Institutions, Typologies...From Amenity to Necessity: Benchmarking Public Open Space Pr...Gendered Borders and Bordered Genders: Henri Lefebvre's 'Rig...Geotrauma and War Memorialisation in Lebanese ComicsGhost Rivers: Visualizing a Buried Urban Stream and Lost Eco...Heritage Stories: A Mapping Practice Case Study with the Lou...Heritage Trap and Controversies in the Transformation of Co...Housing Instability and Chronic Disease Self-Management in a...How Reliable are Open Data Sources in Measuring the 15 Minut...Hybrid Ephemeral Inhabitation in Abu DhabiIdentified Problems and Expected Support by Cultural and Cre...In Search of the Desert Truffle, a Multidisciplinary Researc...Is Cairo a Runnable City? Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Com...Is The Greek City A 15-Minute City?Learning from Minimal Art and Minimalist ArchitectureMigrants as Activists in Maintaining the Cultural Landscape:...More Than Meets the AIMoving Cranes. Shipyards as Vectors of Uncertain Urban Devel...Music and Cultural Actions in Public Space as a Means of Urb...Nothing is Absent Whose Presence is to be Desired’: Syria...Participatory Approach to Conflict Resolution in the Context...Participatory Design and Development of Community Based Upcy...Participatory Design Workshop; The Case of Riyadh Municipali...Private Developments, Public Edges: Intermediary Spaces and ...Revitalizing Vietnamese Weaving Traditions through Computati...Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Portugal (2008â...Singapore Pte Ltd: The Nation’s National GallerySocial Activism and Street Art: A Response to Transnational ...Space-Time-Use Transformations on Urban Disruptions: Communi...Territorial Dynamics in Contemporary Public Spaces - Praça ...The Ambivalent Livability of An Urban Fascist TraceThe Chandigarh Challenge: Balancing Cultural Heritage and F...The Diminishing Foodscape: Street Vending Amid the Drifting ...The effectiveness of using the Local Development Plan tool i...The Missing BuildingThe Paradoxes and Possibilities of Public SpaceThis Building Saves Lives: The Architecture of Harm Reductio...Trauma-Informed Planning for Immigrant Integration: Preceden...TRES: Building Communal Identity via Migratory Memory in Exp...Tulum's Economic and Urban Transformation: From Traditional ...Uncovering the Hidden Economic Benefits of Investment in the...Urban Cultural Infrastructure and the Foundations of Liveabi...Urban Planning in Search of New Approaches: Proposal for a C...Utilizing AI and Intelligent Infrastructure for Sustainable ...Wandering in Search of God: The City as a Space of Exile and...Yellow Bulldozers and Red Paint : The Impact of a Regenerati...
Schedule

IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Cities, Culture, People & Place
The Missing Building
N. Morais
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm

Abstract

The Missing Building (TMB) explores how participatory and speculative design practices, combined with urban storytelling, can be used to reimagine cities and address the emotional, cultural, and functional needs of communities. It examines how individuals conceptualise “missing buildings” in their environments, transforming these imagined spaces into artefacts that contribute to urban design discourse. The project provides an accessible and creative framework for engaging with the built environment beyond conventional planning methods, centring public participation as a crucial element in rethinking urban spaces. This research is part of a doctoral thesis investigating how participatory methodologies can bridge local and global urban perspectives. It adopts an autoethnographic approach, intertwining the researcher’s experiences, reflections, and positionality within urban design and participatory practices. The six cities examined—Beira (MZ), Sardoal (PT), Cambridge (CN), Rotterdam (NL), Fortaleza (BZ), and Chester (UK) are places that have shaped the researcher’s understanding of architecture, education, and belonging and provide a lens through which personal and collective engagements with urban space are examined, uncovering how memory, culture, and socio-political conditions influence perceptions of absence and presence in the built environment. Through storytelling and model-making, TMB challenges dominant urban development narratives and repositions communities as co-authors of their spaces. The project critically examines how speculative design can be used as a mode of resistance against exclusionary planning practices, offering a space for dialogue, imagination, and action. By reframing what is missing, the research highlights the generative possibilities of absence, proposing an alternative urban discourse where buildings that do not yet exist still have the potential to shape lived experiences, policy, and design practices.

Biography

Neuza Morais is an architect, educator, and researcher who explores placemaking, public space, and belonging through participatory design and arts-based methodologies. She holds a BA and MArch in Architecture and Urbanism from Universidade Lusíada in Lisbon, an MA in Creative Practices in Education, and is completing a Doctorate in Education at the University of Chester. She founded The Missing Building, a participatory project engaging communities in reimagining urban spaces through storytelling and design. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and public spaces and recognised with award.