A WEEK OF SEMINARS, LECTURES AND PRESENTATION ORGANISED AND HOSTED BY PROJECTIVE CITIES MPHIL IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN
14-18 DECEMBER 2020
Athens as a case study, and specifically the neighborhood of Kaisariani, is the focus of the programme term 2 design exercise. A series of collaborations with the local municipality and various stakeholders, academic institutions, practitioners and activists, present and expose AA students in the city’s complex urban and social history, aiming to rethink urban and architectural design practices within the context of 21st century ecological, social, economic and political challenges.
The city and the neighborhood of Kaisariani serve as sites of research and design experimentation, focusing on the development of new housing typologies, renovation projects and various public and collective equipments, while rethinking and promoting the legacy of the refugee population and its social, cultural and political histories and their registry in spatial and design protocols.
Sessions:
Mon DEC 14: Introduction, Athens as a case study and Kaisariani Project. 3pm
Platon Issaias, Ioanna Piniara.
Urban Environment Laboratory. 4pm
Nikos Belavilas, Katerina Christoforaki, Polina Prentou.
Tue DEC 15: Athens Urban Plans. 11am
Panagiotis Tournikiotis
Renovation as a project: the Athenian office building. 6pm
Dimitris Chatziioakeimidis.
Hellinikon Neighborhoods. 6.30pm
Maria Marlanti, Thanos Pagonis, Kostantinos Serraos.
Wed DEC 16: Decentralised interiorities and Athens ‘Long Walk’. 5pm
Olga Balaoura, Elisavet Hasa.
Thu DEC 17: A Compact City facing Covid-19, Athens Social Atlas. 5pm
Lila Leontidou, Thomas Maloutas.
Fri DEC 18: 2008-16. Athens Remembered. 5pm
Iris Lykourioti.
– NOTE: times above are local in Athens (GMT +2hrs)
– In English, via Zoom/Teams, follow Projective Cities
website and social media.
Public Lectures:
Tue DEC 15: Pandemics, the City, a Crystal -plus two Competitions. 8pm
Pandemics and its relation to the City will serve as a short prélude to the presentation of two first Prize competition proposals for Athens -with a time difference of 60 years: Jan Despo’s project for the Athens Cultural Centre (1959) and tense architecture network’s project for the Regeneration of the Athens City Centre (2019).
Tilemachos Andrianopoulos.
Born in Athens (1974). Diploma in Architecture, National Technical University of Athens (2001), Metropolis Msc in Architecture and Urban Culture, CCCB- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (2006). Founder of Tense Architecture Network_TAN (2004). Public space and private environments are constantly researched in TAN’S work; the two fields are purposely interconnected. The practice’s portfolio includes several first prize competition proposals as well as awarded residences: ‘Residence in Megara’ received a Häuser Award (2016), Residence in Heraklion was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award (2017) and ‘Residence in Sikamino’ was shortlisted for the same award (2013), while TAN participated in the Architecture Biennale of Venice twice (2012 and 2014). 1st Prize Competition Proposals: Regeneration of the Athens City Center (2019), Six Star Resort in Mykonos, invited Competition_1st Prize (2019), ‘Kastraki’ Urban Park in Piraeus (2016), Rehabilitation of Venetian Arsenali and their wider surrounding space in Heraklion (2009), Arkalos Town Hall, Crete (2007). Selective architectural competition distinctions: New Passenger Terminal in Souda_3rd Prize (2017), New Cyprus Archaelogical Museum_6th Prize (2017), Museum for Argo in Volos_2nd Prize (2014), Pylaia Cultural Center_2nd Prize (2002). Receiver of the Greek Architecture Award (2020) by domA.archi for the Restoration of the Upper Concert Hall of the Athens Conservatory in collaboration with atelier66. Member of the multidisciplinary group Greenproject (2010), of the Hellenic Institute of Architects (2015), and of do.co.momo international (2015). Associate Professor in the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens.
Image caption: Michiel Sweerts, ‘Plague in an ancient City’.
Thu DEC 17: The law of withdrawal, 8pm
The idea of protocols of withdrawal seems to refer to the condition of the pandemics but it is not so. On the contrary it leads here to a definition of the city’s normality pre-existing the pandemics and addressing the future after it; through an investigation about urban withdrawal we are oriented towards a systematic theory of the infrastructure; an updated concept of infrastructure -including the realm of the post digital extensions of it- becomes increasingly visible as a mechanism of withdrawal. Providing services and goods from a distance, this infrastructure can settle a form of “life from a distance”; in the same way it automatically silences all possible technical malfunctions operated in its realm, it glorifies a concept of permanent maintenance as the core of its rationale. By tele-operation this silencing effect of the infrastructure becomes even stronger as a permanent possibility for the gratification of all possible urban or post-urban needs. In this sense the infrastructure seems to not only be the technical support of urban life but the unifying spine of its multiple faces. Any concept of the political has to deal now with the automatisms of infrastructure.
The law of withdrawal is presented in two chapters: the theory of the cockpit and the status of invisible community, both extended to an architectural practice. Both showcase the double bind between the public and the private sphere of the post network world.
Aristide Antonas’ work spans philosophy, art, literature and architecture. He published novels, short stories, theatre scripts and essays. His art and architecture work has been featured among other places in documenta 14, Istanbul biennial, Venice biennale, and had solo institutional presentations in the Swiss Architecture Museum, in Austria’s Vorarlberger Architektur Institut and in the French FRAC, Orleans.
Image caption: Aristide Antonas, ‘Protocols of withdrawal’.
