Fala / Point Supreme

Overview

For the inaugural edition of DOMa Lectures, DOMa welcomed Fala from Porto and Point Supreme from Athens, bringing together two architectural practices whose work shares an interest in reinterpreting familiar urban and architectural conditions through distinctive contemporary languages.

Point Supreme presented a selection of their early projects, which focused on re-reading the urban phenomenon of Athens through recent architectural and urban theories. They then introduced a series of more recent built works, alongside their project for the new School of Architecture in Marseille, explaining a recurring strategy within their practice: the rearrangement and recombination of existing elements as a means of producing new architecture. Rather than seeking novelty through entirely new forms, their work often emerges from a critical transformation of what is already present.

Fala presented the structure and working culture of their Porto-based practice, bringing together architects educated locally and internationally. Their presentation focused on the way the office reads the urban landscape and the infrastructures surrounding its interventions, before moving through a series of predominantly small-scale projects. Working frequently with limited budgets, conventional construction techniques and clients without strong architectural ambitions, Fala described a strategy in which highly deliberate and sophisticated design operates through otherwise ordinary means.

The pairing also revealed a broader common condition. Both practices emerged from countries on Europe’s geographical periphery with exceptionally strong architectural traditions—traditions that provide a rich foundation but can also become restrictive for younger generations seeking new directions. In different ways, Point Supreme and Fala have challenged these inherited conditions, developing recognisable architectural languages as well as distinctive methods of representation and critical engagement with programme, context and everyday life.

The event concluded with a conversation between the two practices and Giorgos Panetsos, curator of DOMa, followed by questions from the audience. The discussion reinforced the affinities between two offices that, despite working in different cities and contexts, share an approach based on critically reassessing the architectural material already available to them and transforming the ordinary into a field for architectural invention.