Lecture by Al Borde architecture studio

Date: 29.04.2025
Time: 18:00
Host: Bergen Assembly & Bergen Scool of Architecture (BAS)



Join us for a lecture by acclaimed Ecuadorian architecture studio, Al Borde. 

Known for its radical, thoughtful and socially grounded approach to architecture, Al Borde re-imagines how architecture transforms the way we build, live, and collaborate. One of their founding members, Esteban Benavides, will share stories, strategies, and provocations from their participatory practice rooted in local knowledge and radical care.

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About Al Borde:

Al Borde is an architecture studio based in Quito, Ecuador, founded in 2007 by David Barragán, Pascual Gangotena, Maríaluisa Borja, and Esteban Benavides. The practice inhabits a space of constant questioning, where assumptions about what architecture should or shouldn’t be are always under construction. Their ideas are developed through making—refined on site, in direct conversation with context.

Conscious of the energy invested in building, Al Borde works with the resources and techniques of each place. Their projects become x-rays of their sites, revealing the customs, histories, challenges, and needs of the communities they engage. They advocate for architecture as a collaborative process, where users actively participate in design and construction.

Their work addresses the sustainability of life at its core—resources, consumption, co-responsibility, gender, and social inequality. The diversity of their projects reflects a collective willingness to embrace ideas, take risks, and engage deeply in shaping shared spaces.

Al Borde’s work has received international recognition, including the Swiss Architecture Award (2024), and has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and the Sharjah Architecture Triennial.

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The event is free and open to all.

The Bergen Assembly office is universally accessible from street level and our toilets are gender neutral.

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