The Unseen Architecture
Making Visible the Invisible
How are one’s mood, feelings and sense of expectation altered by a particular space? It is not simply the physical, material composition of the space, or just the elements relating to this space (though these – light, warmth, sound, smells etc are all integral and important aspects), but also the human interaction with the space – how people use it and move about within it.
This interaction with people and buildings is the one factor one cannot create by using the set of structural tools available to a designer – it depends entirely in the people which inhabit and use the spaces, how they use them, what they do in them, how they respond to and connect with others also using the space. Do they fill the space and use up the ‘air’ within it or breathe freely?
The topic of this year's Architecture at the Edge Festival is centred on the theme of the ‘Unseen’ Architecture. To make visible the often invisible factors that shape space. The 2025 program would like to spotlight architecture that is inspired by or is part of our daily lives by presenting those imperceptible or insignificant little things that surround us, make up our vital environment and influence our way of life in a conscious or subconscious manner.
The maximum allowance available of €2,500; includes the fee for your time, and production cost for events.
The submission must include a project description of max. 2400 characters, a draft budget, and a portfolio/CV.
More information can be found in our open call document
🗓Deadline: Applications close on Monday 07 July 2025.
📍26 Sept - 12 Oct | Galway, Ireland
About the Open Call
Architecture is generally understood as visible and material. The challenge in this open call is to find a way of reading architecture in terms of the invisible. To illuminate the often-invisible forces and resources that shape our built environment.
We invite architects, urbanists, artists, researchers and others to make work about the invisible, the unseen, and the hidden; to make manifest the complex systems that shapes our world.
We are seeking proposals which investigate the physical/material/sensory/perceptible manifestations that point to a sense of immanent presence, a more than the immediately visible, that architects/culture constantly aspires to express. Architecture (and other arts) provides a kind of ladder that brings the ethereal within reach – we cannot always see the relationship between the built environment and natural processes but involves time, emotions, perception, the senses, scale, movement, and so on yet all of these systems are vital to architectural practice. The open call aims to highlight architectural elements that are not normally visible, but nevertheless play an integral role in the work, like the control of water, light and air.
Another aspect of that questions standard assumptions about the relationship between architecture and infrastructure, advocating for the development of new models of living that harmonize with natural systems while offering novel aesthetic and experiential values. To explore the ethical and technical entanglements of systems of things working together as parts of an interconnecting network; Over the festival we will examine the opportunities and challenges facing key sectors, from energy infrastructure and data centres to housing development and sustainability - asking: what architectures are we not yet seeing? And how might we begin to see them?
We encourage applicants to interpret the brief as openly as possible. Selected projects will be showcased during the Festival, positioned within a national dialogue on architecture and spatial planning.
We are looking forward to seeing your thoughts and ideas!