How Heavy is a Building?

‘How Heavy is a Building?’ explores the unseen material, cultural, and environmental weight of architecture. Developed by Ha/f Climate Design and Make Good Projects, the film traces the embodied carbon of three of Lisbon’s most iconic cultural institutions—the Museu do Design (MUDE), the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), and the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB). Through site investigations, interviews, and visual storytelling, it examines how construction materials and systems such as concrete, steel, and HVAC embody energy, history, and labour.

By connecting Lisbon and Toronto, the project reveals how global networks of extraction, production, and reuse shape our cities. It translates complex architectural research into an accessible narrative that invites viewers to see buildings not as static forms, but as living records of resource use and cultural exchange.

Presented in English and Portuguese, the short film blends technical precision with poetic reflection to illuminate how architecture reflects both the ambitions and burdens of modernity. ‘How Heavy is a Building?’ asks what it means to “weigh” the built environment—and how this act might inspire more sustainable and imaginative futures.

The exhibition also features Houses Worth by Giaimo. Houses Worth is an installation that translates the embodied carbon of threatened Toronto high-rise buildings into a familiar unit: the single-family house. Focusing on three at-risk towers, the project calculates each building’s material and carbon value as the equivalent number of houses, reframing demolition not as an abstract environmental issue but as a measurable loss.

Through a series of scale models, each high-rise is paired with a proliferation of small house forms, visually accumulating the carbon cost embedded in the structure. This comparison exposes a central paradox in Toronto’s development culture: mid- to late-20th-century high-density housing is framed as obsolete and primed for redevelopment, even as low-density neighbourhoods are preserved as the default urban condition.

By translating embodied carbon into a domestic scale, Houses Worth makes the environmental consequences of demolition legible. The installation asks viewers to reconsider how value is assigned in the built environment, arguing that existing buildings should be understood not only as redevelopment opportunities, but as repositories of carbon, material, energy, and time. In doing so, it prompts a reassessment of how we build our cities and the values embedded in these decisions.