Cities and destinations are trying to be smarter, which means more efficient, faster, even more perfect for both visitors and residents. Are we on the right track? Or are we fuelling a utopia? And is technology an ally or an invader? Three experts give us their opinion.

Constança Entrudo may be one of Portugal’s most promising fashion designers, but belongs very much to a world she observes with irony, responsibility and enviable freedom. Big on patterns and individuality, she creates collections as fresh and light as a spring breeze.

A century or so ago, a rather seductive substance appeared on the scene. Versatile, cheap and durable, plastic’s potential immortality has made it one of the biggest problems on a highway to climate hell, in the words of António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. We may have a love-hate relationship with the stuff, but can we live without it?

Over the last decade, african architecture has received deserved international attention, much of it focussed on Diébédo Francis Kéré. Originally born in the village of Gando, in Burkina Faso, he trained as an architect at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2022, Kéré received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the first african architect to do so.

When I explain what I do, who I am, I often say how old the artistic milieu is. It begins in the Paleolithic period, at a time when society was structured very differently to today. There was a tribe that constantly moved from place to place, leaving its mark in the caves and places where it sheltered. Even in such a simple society, there were artists representing the life of their people, something they’ve been doing until now.

Where others see weeds, Alexandre Delmar and Maria Ruivo see edible and curative plants. And so Recoletora was born, a pilot-project that has produced a catalogue of wild plants that grow on wasteland. Alexandre Delmar’s a photographer and videographer, Maria Ruivo’s a graphic designer and creative director.

Kengo Kuma is certainly one of the most recognised and expressive Japanese architects today. His (re)interpretations of traditional Japanese architecture include dynamic surfaces, innovative structures, the use of sustainable materials, an original way of thinking about the relationship between light and space…

Five hundred years of Arab occupation left Portugal with a culinary legacy rich with coriander and citrus fruit, figs and almonds, stews and escabeches. To think that it’s been 13 centuries since Mediterranean cuisine first passed this way.

From cork oak forests to the world, the Portuguese company Sofalca has transformed what was once waste into one of design and architecture’s most exciting materials. Designed by Toni Grilo.

«I prefer to be connected to our roots, so not to lose the idea of what is ours». In 2015, Chef João Rodrigues felt he needed to better define the identity of the portuguese produce he used in his dishes.

After over a century in which concrete has become the go-to material in construction, cross-laminated timber has emerged as the most viable solution to make architecture and the building industry more sustainable.