3rd practical discussion with Parabase | Slow Events

December 2, 2025, 6:00 p.m. Tobacco Factory Linz, Marketplace

Carla Ferrando from the architecture firm Parabase as a guest at the Forum Baukultur.

The guest of the third practical discussion is Catalan architect Carla Ferrando. Together with her partner Pablo Garrido Arnaiz, she founded the Basel-based architecture firm Parabase in 2023. The two combine their work in the development and implementation of architectural projects with research and teaching. In the past, they have taught at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, were workshop leaders at the Porto Academy 2025 and are currently visiting professors at ETH Zurich.

With their winning design for the Basel Walkeweg competition, the brief for which was to reuse the maximum number of components from a demolition site, the architectural duo has made a name for itself internationally in the field of "re-use".

Parabase sees buildings not as isolated formal forms of expression, but as material evidence of social and economic history. Circular strategies such as reuse, repurposing and recycling question conventional modes of production and consumption. These methods reuse waste, question standardized construction processes and combat decay by giving materials a second life and encouraging a new reading of our built environment.

In her lecture, Carla Ferrando will reflect on the challenges and opportunities of circular practices, which, despite their urgency and relevance, still struggle to gain a foothold in architectural discourse. Ferrando wants to reflect on how these strategies can be linked to broader cultural ambitions and anchored more deeply in architecture.

Would it be possible to leave all conventions behind and create an architecture that emerges from a deep understanding of building, viewing it as a technical, cultural and political act rather than a mere design exercise?

The event takes place with the support of the Chamber of Civil Engineers and Architects of Upper Austria and Salzburg.

Tabakfabrik Linz,
House CASABLANCA, Marktplatz, 1st floor,
via entrance B1 (B-lift/B-stairs)
Peter-Behrens-Platz 8/9