In the Age of Cities
In the Age of Cities - Film Director: Sara Nunes
Sara Nunes was born in Lisbon in 1985. She graduated in Architecture from the Escola Superior Artística do Porto and Universität Kassel (Germany). She worked at Ensamble Studio in Madrid, where she discovered her passion for film. In 2013, she founded BUILDING PICTURES, a Portuguese production company focused on architecture, having produced over 300 short films by 2021.
In 2022, she premiered WoodStories at Casa da Arquitectura, a documentary about wood in contemporary Portuguese architecture. The film won the Loop Design Awards and was selected by international festivals in Tokyo, Sweden, Brazil, Hungary, and Turkey.
In 2023, she premiered Back to the City, about the rehabilitation of Mercado do Bolhão, Porto’s historic market, and its social impact. It was screened at Cinema Batalha and selected by festivals in Bulgaria and Greece.
In May 2024, she received the Innovation in Architecture Award from the Forma Awards at the Serralves Museum.
In April 2025, The First Siza had its pre-premiere at the Serralves Museum, portraying Álvaro Siza’s first project and his meeting with his first client sixty years later. At a time of housing crisis, the film shows that architecture is not just walls and roofs, but spaces that transform and define life experiences. The event included Siza’s presence and marked a key moment in celebrating his legacy. The film is now in international festivals, selected for one in Brazil, with more results pending. Its official premiere is on October 1st at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, followed by screenings in the UK, US, Spain, Panama, Italy, and beyond.
Sara is currently working on several films: In the Age of Cities, The Flying Photographer, about Fernando Guerra — one of the world’s leading architectural photographers — and a new documentary on Eduardo Souto de Moura. In October 2024, she began her PhD in Architecture Communication at ETSAM, Madrid.
In the Age of Cities is a feature documentary exploring how architecture and design shape more inclusive, sustainable urban futures. Against global crises—climate change, housing, inequality—the film brings together leading voices building real alternatives: Ana Aragão’s imaginary paper cities; Gilles Retsin’s AI-driven prefabricated homes with AUAR; Guta Moura Guedes’ public space curation in City Cortex; and Iñaqui Carnicero’s urban policy reforms in Spain.
From 3D printing to new materials and digital fabrication, the film maps concrete projects tackling today’s urban challenges. It features OODA’s Havelar project—low-cost 3D-printed housing developed with Álvaro Siza, Aravena and Kéré—Mario Cucinella’s School of Sustainability, a training hub for environmental architecture, and AUAR’s robotic housing platform. The documentary also includes contributions from Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kengo Kuma, Diller Scofidio, Stefan Sagmeister, Gabriel Calatrava, Yves Béhar and Dominic Leong.
The film emerged from the question: “How do we want to live together?” Through global conversations and on-site filming, it critically engages with spatial ethics, innovation, and collective responsibility. While grounded in real-world solutions, it embraces speculative thinking to reimagine future cities.
We are submitting this project to LINA because we believe the film should be a starting point for broader debate. We want to work with LINA to create public screenings, invite other practices, and foster new conversations by sharing diverse solutions for the future of cities. More than a documentary, In the Age of Cities is a platform for dialogue and action. Architecture alone may not save us—but it can help us build what comes next.