Living Hearts

Living Hearts is a series of three illustrations that takes the human heart — a universal symbol of life, emotion, and empathy — as a starting point to build a visual metaphor about hospitality and the sharing of space.

In the images, the anatomy of the heart is reimagined as a habitable architecture. Windows of different shapes and sizes appear across its surface, as if the body itself had become a living building, suggesting presence, interiority, and the possibility of encounter.

The series brings together three contemporary realities: empathy as the ability to hold others within ourselves, the housing crisis affecting Portuguese society, and the migrant experience, marked by the search for shelter and belonging. By merging body and home, the illustrations invite reflection on how far we are willing to make space for others — not only in our cities, but also within ourselves.