Christina Tsekoura
CV + PORTFOLIO Selected Academic Works
INDEX CV Dourgouti “Commons” Co-Housing at the Social Housing Complex of Neos Kosmos Diploma Thesis | winter 2020
Reflections on Adaptable Housing Exploring the idea of an Adaptable Housing Complex in Patras Global Housing Design - DelftX| spring 2021
ReCovering Museum and Festival Infrastructure at the abandoned bauxite quarry of Spartolakka Arch. Design Studio 06 | spring 2018
Zirma Re-Imagining the urban block_A scenario for a future city in flux Arch. Design Studio 07 | winter 2018
EDUCATION 2014-2020 Integrated Master’s Degree [9.02]
Department of Architecture and Engineering University of Patras, Patras, Greece
2019
CHRISTINA TSEKOURA Architect
Erasmus+ mobility for Studies
Departamento de Arquitectura Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
WORK EXPERIENCE 2018
Constantinos Petrakos Architect
2019
OM Meletitiki
2019
Dragonas Architecture Studio
2021
Theros Architects
Architectural Intern (2 months)
Architectural Intern (2 months)
Competition “Lykavitos PANorama”
Architect (currently)
SKILLS
tsekchristina@gmail.com
+30 6983475730 Christina Tsekoura
Software
Languages
Autocad Revit Rhinoceros Photoshop InDesign Illustrator Premiere Lumion 3ds Max
Greek | Native English | Proficient German | Intermediate Portuguese | Elementary
WORKSHOPS - SEMINARS 2021
Zero Energy Design | DelftX
2021
Building Inclusive Cities | DelftX
2021
Global Housing Design | DelftX
2020
48h Challenge for Circular Economy in Design| ECOWEEK
2017
` Earth Pavillion | Boulouki
Certified online course on Energy Efficient Buildings from TU Delft through the EdX platform Certified online course on Urban strategies for inclusive cities from TU Delft through the EdX platform Certified online course on Housing from TU Delft through the EdX platform Reuse of an abandoned industrial building as a culltural space Building a pavillion with rammed earth and reeds
2016
Sustainable Design of Buildings | Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Patras
2016
IAH Rome 2016 | Archistart Design of a school in an earthquake-striken town
PRESENTATIONS - EXHIBITIONS 2017
Space and the Architecture of Compassion | Michalis Kakogiannis Foundation, Athens, Greece Presentation of student project for the course of “KENYA” Instructor: Dimitris Antoniou
2017
Kenya Design Aid | University of Nicosia, Cyprus
2016
Conference “Ambiances Tomorrow” | University of Volos, Greece Presentation of student project for the course of “Special Topics in History of Architecture 7” Instructor: Vasiliki Petridou
Presentation of student project for the course of “KENYA” Instructor: Dimitris Antoniou
OTHER 2016
Open House Athens
Volunteer Tour Guide at the Embassy of the Netherlands and the “Orange Grove”
2016-2020 Cultural Group for Students of the University of Patras
Member (4 years) and Latin Dance Co-Instructor (3 years)
DOURGOUTI “COMMONS” Co-Housing at the social housing complex of Neos Kosmos, Athens Diploma Thesis | Instructor: Panos Dragonas
The project explores the reuse of a housing complex through the installation of services for common use and the transition from a state of “sharing the same roof” to a broader mode of collectivity. More specifically, it is an attempt to research on how the creation of a Co-Housing community could make the existing infrastructure more adaptable.
7 apartment blocks 237 apartments
1920
1935-1940
35 apartment blocks 865 apartments
1959
1967-1975
The term “Co-Housing” is used to describe an intentional community of households that share amenities. Its main principles are co-operation and sustainability. In order to convert an existing apartment complex into a space appropriate for a Co-Housing community, the dipole of fully private apartments and shared circulation should be replaced by a combination of spaces with varied degrees of privacy that encourage sharing. Such an action in the social housing complex could enhance the co-operation between the residents, as well as protect the neighborhood from gentrification. The residents will gradually start sharing services, items and spaces.
time
The transition starts with the buildings of the marketplace complex and the adjacent public spaces and through time is spread to the rest of the neighborhood. It takes place in four stages.
The interior of the apartments is shaped according to a “transformation rule”, which ensures that the size of the apartment and its interior configuration can easily adapt to the current needs of each household. Once this rule is applied to each floor, the users keep the spaces that their household requires, to create the main apartments, and the extra rooms will form the “commons”.
configuration of different uses ~example
Main Apartments Community-managed Apartments for Rent Community Spaces Satellite Rooms
An apartment can “borrow” an extra room from the neighboring community-managed space, by shifting the partitions.
The use of the space between the main apartments should remain as flexible as possible, since multiple changes may be needed simultaneously.
The “satellite-room” is the minimum common space and can host uses that need a few m2 (e.g. guest rooms). If necessary, they can be integrated in a main apartment or complement the space of the apartment, maintaining seperate access.
A new structure encloses the building, providing a new, wider circulation corridor, extra private balconies, and shading.
The partitions alllow different degrees of privacy between the central space of the apartment and the smaller rooms, creating combinations of uses.
If the user wishes, „kitchenette” equipment can be added in the central space of the apartment. When it is not used, it can be covered.
Custom-made furniture can further divide the space of the smaller apartments.
The communal kitchen and dining room on the 4th floor provides a space for community meetings and enhances co-operation.
Different levels of private, communal and public spaces
The new network of “commons” expands. The private spaces coexist and co-operate with it - they no longer dominate it. This system evolves, shifting the border between private and common when it is needed.
Model ~ cardboard and styrofoam
As the “commons” start spreading to the rest of the neighborhood, the entire ground floor of the marketplace is reshaped by a similar “transformation rule”. A new interpretation of the current uses transforms the adjacent squares.
Other Co-Housing communities begin to form on the nearby buildings following a similar procedure with the first one but adapted to their size and needs.
The residents of the second building utilize the space near the stairwell for temporary community uses, in order to spark the co-operation between them.
A new facade on that part of the building signifies the different use.
Seating areas and small urban gardens cover the two terraces.
A new adaptable shading system provides different levels of privacy for the apartments.
The spread of the “commons” will not result to one final product. The intervention on the buildings attempt to create the optimal conditions, yet allowing those conditions to be redefined. Finally, the inhabited spaces create dynamic relationships that set the rules according to which the infrastructure will adapt.
Reflections on Adaptable Housing Exploring the idea of an Adaptable Housing Complex in Patras, Greece “Global Housing Design” by DelftX | Final Assignment
This short project is an attempt to reflect on the basic strategies of Global Housing Design that were presented in the five-week online course by TU Delft. The basic idea of adaptable housing units in a single complex that was the core of my thesis project, was further investigated by taking into account incrementality, typology mix and clustering. This led to the design of a new neighbohood in the city of Patras, where two types of housing units - low-rise houses with gardens and 4-storey “twin” slabs - are developed from a single type of basic apartment.
The basic unit is a one-room apartment with bathroom, and a balcony that serves as a winter garden. Rows of those minimal units form the low-rise complex, To create mid- and full-sized apartments, extra rooms can be added, on pre-designed positions, until the individual plot is completely covered. This way the rows become thicker through time.
The 4-storey twin-slab buildings consist of the same basic apartments. In this case, each floor is designed as an array of full-sized apartments, that can be divided in smaller units, and allow interchange of rooms between apartments.
Examples of two different floor configurations
YEAR 1 public spaces parking low-rise 4-storey
YEAR 5
The 4-storey buildings are paired, forming “twin” slabs, connected with staircases and bridges, and then arranged in a way that creates corridors between them, enclosing long public spaces for walks and exercise. The low-rise houses are clustered in meandering rows. As the houses become bigger, the rows appear fuller. Small courtyards are formed between the clusters, providing safe spaces for children to play. The typology mix offers two types of possible apartment growth, leading, finally, to various shapes and sizes of available apartments.
YEAR 20
ReCovering Restoration of an abandoned bauxite quarry _ Design of Museum and Festival Infrastructure Architectural Design Studio 06| Instructor: Alexandra Stratou Students: Christina Tsekoura _ Constantinos Doukas
The construction of the museum becomes part of the essential procedure of restoring the old quarry, using the byproducts of the mining process. The exhibits of the museum will replace the bauxite deposit, enclosed in vaults that are covered with material extracted from the site. A reminder of the old quarry will remain on the mountainside as a “wound” that never fully healed. Spartolakka Festival of Visual Arts will be taking place there annually. The exhibits of each year will be added in the vaults after the end of the Festival, enriching the collection. On the top of the old quarry, a permanent exhibition about bauxite mining is created.
The visitors, arriving at the main entrance, follow a downhill path around the vaults, where they can view the exhibits through display glasses, all-year-round. During the Festival, the vaults open and new paths can be created, guiding the visiors from chamber to chamber, through the atriums, so that they can experience the works of art from past Festivals. Additional cultural events can take place in the workshops and the open air theater, at the end of the path.
During the festival the top of the vaults serves as a new ground, where the artists create in open air and interact with the visitors.
1. Reception | Administration 2. Exhibition vaults 3. Workshops 4. Rest Area for Visitors
1 2
4
3
Following the second path, that leads to the top of the old quarry, the visitors get a clear view of the surrounding landscape. The structure that hosts the permanent exhibition leads them even higher, while giving them the chance to come close to the rocky surface of the quarry.
Section of the permanent exhibition ~ Sketch by Constantinos Doukas
The material that covers the new structures looks like it was “poured” from the “crack” of the permanent exhibition, until it was stabilized.
Model ~ cardboard and sand
“Memory is redundant: it repeats its signs so that the city can begin to exist.” Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, Cities and Signs 2
ZIRMA
Re-Imagining the urban block_A scenario for a future city in flux Architectural Design Studio 07| Instructor: Panos Dragonas
A mysterious structure is “planted” in four places of the interior yard of a city block - two in ventilation shafts and two in narrow spaces between neighboring buildings. This structure, a three-dimentional grid, gets taller and starts expanding towards the center of the yard, day by day. The residents of the nearby buildings at first feel awe, mixed with suspicion. Gradually, though, they decide to make use of that new structure. The assinged uses of the grid cannot be permanent, but rather flow and change along with the structure.
The structure offers a new level of creation, a space out of the buildings and over the ground, “immaculate” from everyday life. The first, daring neighbors make use of those special conditions and the ambiance to explore their body and mind.
The residents seek out to add new uses. They experiment with materials and techniques and create spaces with intense sensory stimulus. The result is a network of spaces that serve for isolation or socialization.
The grid is now dents’ life, as the aspects of their floating city is em
part of the resiey establish other routine. A new, merging.
When the grid can no longer multiply itself internally, it starts expanding towards the buildings, breaking their skin and penetrating the apartments. The residents use temporary dividers, following the axes of the grid, and create new dwelling units.
The remainders of the buildings deteriorate, fall apart and eventually are taken away. The parasite “ate” the block from the inside, destroyed it and took its place. Zirma is a city on air, created by the needs of its users and constantly adapting to those needs.
Exploration
Familiarization
Appropriation
Penetration
Zirma