Where will you live once you grow older? Will your city take care of you? How to design for the elderly, and for those who care for them? The documentary Where We Grow Older (CCA, 2023, 30 min) looks at how the growing aging population is reshaping architectural and social constructs and questions the role of urban design and politics in facing these challenges. The film investigates two models of how care and housing can be reconceived in light of prolonged lives: public housing as part of municipal policies and infrastructure—where the city is the caretaker—and the creation of a new architectural model that offers care in a single building managed by private entities not only to the elderly but also to their caretakers—where the building becomes the city.

The film takes us to a housing project Ali Bei in the centre of Barcelona conceived as part of the city’s social housing program and positioning the elderly as active community members; and to Carehaus in Baltimore, the first intergenerational care-based co-housing project in the United States, which uses space as a catalyst for the development of care-based communities by bringing together caretakers and caregivers. While the cities and the political and economic contexts differ, the two projects present the same desire to address demographic aging in a spatial and unsegregated way.

Where We Grow Older concludes a three-part short documentary film series and investigation, conceived by CCA Director Giovanna Borasi, directed by Daniel Schwartz, and produced by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, to examine the ways in which changing societies, new economic pressures, and increasing population density are affecting the homes of various communities. Through the lens of architectural projects, each episode looks at the global scope as well as the local specificities of challenges to urban society and its spatial configuration, informed by changes in lifestyles and demographics. While the first film What It Takes to Make a Home (CCA, 2019, 29 min) addressed homelessness, and was presented as part of the 58th Session of the Commission for Social Development at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in February 2020, the second film When We Live Alone (CCA, 2020, 27 min) examines the ways in which people live alone.

On 27 June at 7:15pm, Where We Grow Older celebrates its World Premiere as the opening film of the 10th edition of the Arquiteturas Film Festival in Porto at Batalha Centro de Cinema. A Q&A with film director, Daniel Schwartz and Giovanna Borasi, who will be joined by Paulo Moreira, Director of the AFF, follows the screening. A screening of the first two films in the series, What It Takes to Make a Home (2019) and Where We Live Alone (2020) precede the World Premiere of Where We Grow Older from 5:15pm. Purchase tickets here.

Further events organised by the CCA as Guest Institution of the 10th edition of the Arquiteturas Film Festival 2023:

From 27 June to 27 July, the CCA presents an installation at INSTITUTO with a selection of recent documentary films as tools in the institution’s curatorial work. On 28 June and 29 June 2023, 12:30 - 2:30pm, the installation will be activated by ‘Lunchtime Toasts,’ a series of conversations around films and other curatorial tools, as a way to challenge or contextualize the CCA’s concerns.

With the participation of Daniel Schwartz, Federica Sofia Zambeletti, Hannah Strothmann, Inês Moreira, Joaquim Moreno, Justin Jaeckle, Lucinda Correia, Luís Santiago Baptista, Margarida Mendes, Nuno Grande, Paulo Moreira, among others, who are joined by Giovanna Borasi, Karine Charbonneau, and Julia Albani from the CCA.

Conversation in Portuguese or/ and in English. Open to the public. Registration required as places are limited. Light lunch will be served. Register here.

The films presented in the installation include:

Now, Please Think About Yesterday (CCA, 2019, 22 min), a film conceived by Francesco Garutti, directed by Erin Weisgerber and shot inside the headquarters of Gallup Nebraska, US, the source of the data released in the highly publicized World Happiness Report.

Misleading Innocence: Tracing What a Bridge Can Do (CCA, 2014, 49 min), a film conceived by Francesco Garutti and directed by Shahab Mihandoust, that explores the history and politics of Long Island parkways by interviewing four scholars who, in the 1980s and 1990s, debated possible interpretations of the case: Bernward Joerges, Bruno Latour, Langdon Winner, and Steve Woolgar.

Islands and Villages (CCA, 2017-2018, 68 min) is a documentary series in five episodes on the posturban phenomenon in rural Japan, conceived by Kayoko Ota and directed by Mile Nagaola and Tom Vincent (creative direction) as part of the CCA c/o Tokyo program, featuring Toyo Ito, Atelier Bow-Wow, dot architects, Hajime Ishikawa, and Kazuyo Sejima.

Untitled (The Things Around Us) (CCA, 2020, 30 min) a video-essay conceived by Francesco Garutti and Irene Chin, and edited by Jesse Riviere. The film is part of the exhibition and publication project The Things Around Us: 51N4E and Rural Urban Framework (2021).

Models Talk (CCA, 2021, 29 min), a series of three short documentary videos conceived by Kayoko Ota and directed by Studio Gross as part of the CCA c/o Tokyo program, featuring Kazuko Akamatsu, Kumiko Inui, and Erika Nakagawa. The series profiles recently completed, and in-progress works of architecture emerging from Japan today. In each video, an architect leads us through their project, guiding the viewer through the problems, concepts, and inventive propositions that underlie the work.

On 28 June at 9.15pm, rare finds from the CCA collection will be screened at Batalha Centro de Cinema. This screening presents a selection of films from the CCA collection, including Film for House IV (Falls Village, Connecticut, Peter Eisenman, 1973, 3min42 sec); High Court Portico (Chandigarh, India, Takashi Homma, 2013, 7min); Forth-Bridge-Cinema Metric Space (Dieter Appelt, 2003-2004, 3min34 sec); and Conical Intersect (Gordon Matta-Clark, 1975, 41min).

The screening session will be followed by Q&A with CCA Director Giovanna Borasi, who is joined by curator, writer, and film programmer Justin Jaeckle. Conversation in English.

On 29 June 2023 at 7.15pm, Giovanna Borasi (CCA) joins Pedro Baia, Magda Seifert (Circo de Ideias), and Francisco Ferreira (Revista JACK) in conversation at Circo de Ideias. Conversation in Portuguese and in English.