Team 10, Lisbon, 1981. The lost meeting

Abstract

Team 10 and Lisbon share a piece of history: namely, a few elements of Team 10, such as Alison and Peter Smithson, Amâncio Miranda Guedes, Giancarlo de Carlo and Jullian de la Fuente, and the Lisbon School of Architecture (or the “Lisbon School”). This text is about the specifics of this conjunction. This paper explores the short but necessary question of whether there was a last formal Team 10 meeting in Lisbon in 1981, and from that point on, it goes back to present: (1) a disclosure of the history of the word ‘revision’ within the teaching of architecture in the school, one which portraits the coming of the Team 10 elements just mentioned; it then (2) outlines the relationship of Team 10 elements with the Lisbon School, namely highlighting, on the one side, the school’s official attitude of support, and on the other side, the pedagogical grounds’ relative disinterest; and finally (3), the text suggests there is no clear answer to the question of whether there had been a formal Team 10 final meeting in Lisbon in 1981. Therefore, in conclusion, it delivers an argument about Lisbon being more than an informal gathering derived from a reunion intention; it considers this a happening that might just now emerge from the unspoken history of architecture as nothing more than a delicate moment, although it was Team 10’s last significant moment.