25 / 10 / 2026
Where Does Culture Go When the Rent Goes Up? Arroz Estúdios and the Fight for Space
A partner's practice · Arroz Estúdios, Lisbon · TY-CO
Arroz Estúdios was founded in Cacilhas in September 2018 and moved to Beato, in eastern Lisbon, at the end of 2019: a site of around 2,000 m² with studios for artists and creatives, a stage, and a programme of jams, concerts and parties. In 2023 it housed 85 artists, 12 studios and 35 jobs.
That autumn the building was put up for sale. A petition asked Lisbon's mayor to help it find an alternative, and it was not alone: in the same years Largo Residências and Casa Independente also lost, or were losing, their spaces to rising rents and property sales.
Fines, a pause, and a question for the city
Between November 2023 and April 2024, municipal police inspections led to five fines, totalling €2,600, for noise after permitted hours and for missing noise limiters, while forced closures of events cost far more. In October 2024 the council said it was following the case, had given €3,000 in support and had offered a space that did not meet the association's needs.
In April 2025 Arroz went into a two-month pausa criativa to rethink its model. Its president, Steven MacKay, asked the city to license cultural associations rather than treat them as targets, and to give them the same access to vacant buildings that tech companies have had: "Trabalhar com elas e não contra elas", work with them, not against them.
Why it matters for TY-CO
Arroz's story sits behind the questions of TY-CO's Lisbon event, Creating the Physical Commons, which asked how underused buildings could become shared, accessible cultural spaces, and how independent organisations can stay in the city at all. It is the same question festivals face everywhere: culture needs a place, and places are getting harder to keep.
Echo Boomer, November 2023 · Gerador, April 2025 (in Portuguese)
Arroz Estúdios →
Photos: Arroz Estúdios
TY-CO (communities in conversation) · ABR – Alternative Brains Rule · Co-funded by the European Union
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.