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CURRICULUM VITAE p.2
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XL × L × M × S
RURAL LIVING
PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES FOREST URBANISM
DENSIFICATION L BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE FOREST URBANISM
THE FOREST RE[-]COLLECTED Post-fire landscapes as agents of reparative urbanism, Evia, Greece
master thesis
BEYOND THE CUL-DE-SAC Schoonzicht Neighbourhood, Leuven
studio project
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XL × L × M
ECOLOGICAL RESILIENCY
PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPES WATER URBANISM
[RE] WILD | ROOT | MEANDER in Bac Leu, Vietnam
studio project
ADAPTIVE RE-USE S CULTURAL HERITAGE
METHONIS 55 REVIVED Landmark Adaptation, Athens
architectural project
BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
DENSIFICATION HOUSING TYPOLOGIES
DENSITY THROUGH TERRACING Post-car univer-city, Leuven
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L × M ANALYSIS
studio project
L × M × S
ADAPTIVE REUSE CULTURAL HERITAGE & IDENTITY URBAN DESIGN
ADAPTIVE RE-USE M BLUE-GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
SAILING CLUB AT PAXOS, GREECE Re-use of Anemogiannis olive factory
diploma thesis
LAYERED LANDSCAPES
Liekendaal Rectory, Brussels
competition entry
XL CULTURAL HERITAGE STRATEGIC PLANNING
MANAGING INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE Ruhr, Germany
dissertation thesis
Sections
My thesis explores the socio-ecological impacts of the 2021 wildfire catastrophe in North Evia, Greece. By studying historical land-use cycles, it redefines the relationship between agriculture, forestry, and settlement through 'forest urbanism.' This approach envisions adaptable, resilient landscapes that renew local economies and ecological balance, proposing a model for Mediterranean regions increasingly vulnerable to climate-induced fires.
01 THE FOREST RE[-]COLLECTED:
POST-FIRE LANDSCAPES AS AGENTS OF REPARATIVE URBANISM, EVIA, GREECE
RESEARCH BY DESIGN THESIS
Promoter: De Meulder B.
Co-promoters: Shannon K., Wambecq W. Academic Year: 2023-2024
During fieldwork, I became aware of how profoundly terrain has influenced the way people settle in North Evia. By focusing on two prominent mountainous figures, Telethrion and Xiron, I explored the placement of settlements— and consider factors like sunlight, wind protection, altitude and water access— to understand their organization and development.
Mapping the focus area reveals key insights: the mostly unscathed Telethrion x the scorched Xiron, the archetypes of the Forested Hill versus the Mosaic of the Rolling Hills, the Dispersed settlements`With the traversing routes that double as forest management infrastructure, from where villagers exercise user rights over their forest domains.
Telethrion's broadleaf and mixed forests, though challenging, offer fire resistance, supporting settlement alongside thriving fig groves and eco-villages. In contrast, Xiron’s fire-damaged pine forests could revert to a fire-adapted landscape, fostering rewilding. A managed retreat is proposed, with a strategic transect northeast of Telethrion Mountain identified.
There, a tapestry of contrasting elements is further revealed: a challenging terrain with burned versus unburned areas, thriving versus declining settlements, and stable oak forests north versus dynamic mosaics south.
These elements are interwoven by a historical road—a potential “filament” enhancing movement and resource management.
Mosaic, A Toolbox of Strategies
The agricultural mosaic emerges as a fire-resilient landscape, balancing economic activity with ecological diversity. I see this mosaic as a toolkit for postfire recovery, future fire preparedness, and the creation of new economic and settlement patterns.
Groves, requiring minimal upkeep, reduce fire spread and offer sustainable income.
The fire resilience matrix illustrates how the mosaic itself is diverse in its fuel loads and maintenance needs, and therefore fire resilience. With a careful balancing it can prove to be an effective fire break along the main road, spanning approximately 50 to 200 meters on either side of the it, depending on steepness.
The mosaic supports erosion control by transforming steep, post-fire slopes into productive terraced groves. It integrates water management systems like irrigation and catchment ponds, and supports forest management through prescribed burns and thinning practices.
The filament acts as the operational base for these interventions, including wildfire management.
A Filament [x]
The Road + The Mosaic + Forest Urbanism + The Commons
It also sets a rhythm that harmonizes human activity with the landscape, balancing tasks like harvesting and fire management. This rhythm reduces wildfire risks and adapts to climate change pressures, safeguarding resilient crops.
At the mountain scale, villages create a synergetic landscape, forming a mixed grove and pasture necklace along the road, conceptualised as the filament. Shared resources include schools, libraries, and mobile services like markets and medical checkups, along with agricultural and forestry logistics hubs, fostering mutual support across the transect.
Kastaniotissa was chosen as a design site for its pivotal role in the fig economy and its intact landscape, which now faces increased fire risk due to high fuel loads. Its unscathed mosaic offers potential to pioneer strategies like the filament and mosaic fire break, sparking broader regional change.
Historically an Ottoman fiefdom and later expanded with a refugee settlement post-1923, Kastaniotissa’s distinct settlement patterns reflect its past: an older, irregular village on the ridge and a newer, grid-planned area with thriving fig plantations from post-refugee settlers.
My survey of Kastaniotissa beyond the typical condition and density survey. focused on semi-open spaces—loggias, porches, and verandas—that are integral to Greek architecture for their climatic and social roles.
These spaces, along with hardscape and softscape areas, protect interiors from the summer sun while allowing winter light. Their design fosters social interaction and integrates the buildings with their surroundings.
This thesis advocates for a forest urbanism that revitalizes villages through multi-scalar strategies. It reimagines the use of outdoor spaces, essential to Greek rural life, and offers a responsive framework that adapts traditional practices to contemporary needs. By leveraging the strengths of small villages, this approach fosters community resilience and addresses ecological and social challenges.
The Schoonzicht neighborhood project emphasizes reforestation and sustainable living by transforming low-density housing into smaller units, fostering a mix of uses. This approach promotes social cohesion and ecological diversity, envisioning shared community spaces like food parks and gardens to create a productive, interconnected landscape within the natural surroundings.
BEYOND THE CUL-DE-SAC: SCHOONZICHT NEIGHBOURHOOD, LEUVEN
Studio Urban Fabrics
Supervisor: De Meulder B., Wambecq W.
Collaborators: Atcheson E., Kesteloot L., Pham M.
Academic Year: 2022-2023
The Schoonzicht neighbourhood acts as a giant cul-de-sac in relation to the general Witness Hills area, as one lone road from the highway expands to subsections leading every car to its rightful driveway, adjacent to the housing unit. This dead-end quality of the infrastructure underlines its ties to the car-centred lifestyle of the homeowners of the post-war decades.
Predominant principle of the project is reforestation & making legible the natural structures: forest & wetland. Thick forest structured to connect with the overarching green system spreading over the slopes of the witness hills area.
This general logic is applied at the smaller scale:reforest more heavily along the steepest slopes of the neighbourhood.
Overall our general concept evolved around this idea of how living sustainably in the forest could be like today & in the future.
>thick green is a)preserved and b) expanded on empty plots, then along the roads
>wet forest on the wetland
>thin forest expanding all over the neighbourhood
Another of the identified problematic aspects was the very low housing density which we sought to elevate through envisioning a gradual transformation process.
We believe that due to their inaccessibility to the middle class despite the ongoing housing crisis & lack of demand in the real estate market, a different way of occupying those large house could happen with the appropriate tools and incentives.
The most impactful step would be to re-organise these houses into smaller units and studios & the introduction of a mixity in uses spread throughout the neighbourhood
The neighbourhood as a productive landscape was the final project ambition, in order to promote sustainable living principles, encourage social cohesion and preserve the ecosystem diversity. Sharing a food park & a common garden could be one the shared community services & activities.
>on some clusters where the landscape and topography encouraged this, we tried to imagine what sharing and working on the agricultural land on a cluster level would look like.
plot area: 6.463 acres
footprint: 4350 m2
proposed footprint: 570 m2 existing households: 12 (50-80 residents) new households: 67 (170 residents)
OPEN SPACE
A carreful mapping of the open landscape uses (from crops to gardens and parks) along with the high vegetation in the area, allowed for a more explicit understanding of the nuances of the site and its structure. Amidst the agricultural valley in the lower plains and the surroundings, as well as the remant forest systems in the steeper hills of the Swanenberg, urbanization has claimed the places in between (mostly along axis of circulation).
Exploring a 'post-car univer-city,' the project reimagines urbanism in Leuven’s topography. Conceptual terraces, derived from elevation contours, shape soft mobility pathways and distinct landscape-urban typologies fostering connectivity, sustainability, and active public spaces.
POST-CAR UNIVER-CITY: DENSITY THROUGH TERRACING, LEUVEN
STUDIO URBAN FABRIC: SPECIAL TOPIC Supervisor: Shannon K., De Meulder B.
Collaborators: Sri K., Rishi R.
Academic Year: 2023-2024
SITE VISION
The proposal enables urbanism to go along the lines of topography, looking into soft mobility as a key urban element in the postcar context. The strategically se- lected contour lines (that are 7-8 meters apart in elevation) divide the site into four conceptual terraces, while being the backbone structure for bikers' and pedestri- ans' paths.
These conecptual terraces don't result in any earthworks of flattenning the land, but rather help guide the urbanism envisioned to become weaved to the landscaping systems transervsing the Swanenberg area (as identified in the reading of the site).
As a result, four different archtypes of landscape+urbanism are proposed for each conceptual terrace; 1. starting for the highest, as the clearing in the forest with high density tower / 2. continuing to the thick forested steep slope and its embedded urban form entwined with gardens / 3. which then give way to the third terrace where agroforestry designates a sustainable type of living
/ 4. before reaching the low plains of the final terrace, where the existing mobility infrastructure is transformed to respond to and manage different bodies of water coming from the steeper higher hills, allowing for a more gradual absorption of water along the soil and offering a series of wet landscapes for public appropriation and activation.
CLEARING ON TOP
The clearing at this highest plateau is formed on the south by the remnant steeped- hill forest and on the north by the monolth of the hospital. To frame the first (south) border a series of landscapes marks the terrace, re-enforcing the feeling of ascension and climax at the top. These include, grassfields and water absorption areas, sport and play activities zones, sensory gardens etc.
To frame the second (north) border a 'snake' figure is envisioned to form the new urban edge, slithering along the steep north side and connecting the urban of the street with the natural of the landscape via a series of ramps and stops. Inside the clearing, pockets of high density living and activity take place in form of timber towers.
Vision Plan of Collectivity at ground floor, Scale 1:200 (bottom left).
Rooms of collectivity of diffrent sorts are dispersed in the clearing: workshops, co-working spaces, study and free play areas, child-care and learning from the environment rooms, restaurants and cafes to connect and enjoy.
Plan | Scale 1:200
At the Confluence
One could experience different landscape systems trying to encroach on each other while traveling along the roadside. This differentiation is made strong with both the weaving and architectural language of the urban fabric in the excavated rooms.
photographs of the physical model | 1:100
This master thesis proposes the adaptive reuse of the Anemogiannis olive press factory in Loggos, Paxos, transforming it into a dual-purpose space: a museum celebrating the factory's industrial heritage and a sailing club. The design emphasizes the preservation of original machinery while providing training and storage areas for sailing activities. A central access zone connects the complex to the village, enhancing community engagement and fostering local tourism, all while respecting the island's unique character.
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SAILING CLUB AT PAXOS: RE-USE OF ANEMOGIANNIS OLIVE FACTORY
Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Belavilas N., Andrianopoulos T.
Collaborators: Vlachokyriakou G.
Academic Year: 2021-2022
This bisection of the building program was an important organizational spatial tool which resulted into two large functional units that communicate through a third, which endeavors to supply the first two with movement as the main axis-backbone.
In the surrounding context, the open area south of the complex is seen as an opportunity to create a public square, both serving the building and providing a communal space for the village of Loggos. Here, a network of angular lines, inspired by the site's geometry, seeks to weave together the fragmented village, reuniting its parts in a harmonious dialogue with the natural and built environment.
south facade | 1:100
The need for a large seaside space to store the training boats led to the extension of the factory’s easternmost volume, until part of it was excavated out of the natural steep slope north of the field. In the next step, a second level is developed in the zone of the sailing club, with spaces whose operation is addressing a wider audience: a cafélounge and a small event hall.
A second level is developed in the zone of the sailing club, with spaces whose operation is addressing a wider audience: a café-lounge and a small event hall. Equally important in the design process was the intention to raise the proposed gable roofs from the existing stone structure, with the parallel emphasis of some inverted ridges.
This revitalization project integrates the historic Liekendaal Rectory with its surrounding park in a sustainable, community-centered master plan. Interconnected plateaus guide visitors through unique environments—from reflective to social zones—enhancing biodiversity with native plants. The design emphasizes accessibility, renewable energy, and a café-restaurant featuring onsite produce, fostering community connection and heritage preservation.
LAYERED LANDSCAPES:
ACTIVATING THE LIEKENDAAL RECTORY
PROJECT TENDER
Team: POESENVANHIEL architects
Collaborators: Astitou Tarick
RACO - ingenieur technieken
Studieburo Bisson - ingenieur stabiliteit
Atelier Arne Deruyter-landschapsarchitect
Year: June 2024
This project in Bac Lieu, Vietnam, reintroduces historic waterways and mangrove systems to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience. By creating semi-autonomous floating clusters and new freshwater catchments, it fosters sustainable development while connecting communities to their coastal environment.
[re] wild | root | meander BAC LIEU, VIETNAM
Studio Landscape Urbanism
Supervisor: Shannon K., Geneen G.
Collaborators: Aserman S., Hoerée J.
Academic Year: 2022-2023
Learning from the natural heritage of Bac Lieu, the project [re] introduces the logic of historic waterways and mangrove systems and [re]embeds them into existing structures. Mangroves move both into the sea and towards the land, protecting settlement from future sea storms.
They are [re]meandered to encourage biodiversity, [re]connecting the bird sanctuary to the sea. They march through the shrimp farm landscape, breaking up the aggressive homogeneity and seek to establish a sustainable, economically advantageous and future-focused alternative to the current extensive productive systems.
Floating clusters are semi-autonomous, with individual households caring for services and the collective unit caring for the community. [Re]imagined collective spaces, provide both new social tissues as well as high, dry and safe areas in response to the expected consequences of future climate challenges.
The entire development is framed by new freshwater catchments for household use and to reduce salinity during the dry season.
Perched above the wet landscape by stilts, the medium-rise high-density settlement is somewhat self-sufficient and includes floating gardens, energy from renewable resources and waste water cleaning via constructed wetlands.
With the [re]wilded water and mangrove systems, the project [re]imagines settlement tissues that move with the tides.
A new social tissue of connection, public space and education unite settlements and embed them in the salt and shrimp of Bac Lieu’s coast. By learning from the existing, honouring the past and understanding the future, the future settlement can become a place of climate, social and economic resilience.
METHONIS 55 is an adaptive reuse project located in the vibrant neighborhood of Exarcheia, Athens.
METHONIS 55 REVIVED
LANDMARK HOUSING IN URBAN ADAPTATION, ATHENS
INTERSHIP AT TACET CREATION
Supervisor: Pavlidis K., Oikonomou E.
Year: July-August 2024
A shared garden will enhance the community feel, inviting residents to connect with nature in a car-free environment.
This abandoned neoclassical house, characterized by its intricate decorative elements, is being transformed into a double maisonette with a bedroom on the first floor, a cozy studio house, and a semi-basement space.
The design prioritizes minimal intervention, preserving and restoring the original painted and plaster decorations while demolishing a few non-structural walls.
This dissertation thesis explores industrial heritage management in the Ruhr Valley, examining the intersection of urban planning, heritage preservation, and cultural tourism.
ASPECTS OF MANAGING INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE:
THE CASE OF RUHR AREA, GERMANY
RESEARCH THESIS
Supervisor: Valerianou K., Klampatsea E. Academic Year: 2019-2020
lBA Emscher Park as Regional Planning
Industrial Culture Route as IBA Project
Working Hypothesis
Industrial Heritage as driver of development
Homogenious narration of Regional Heritage with the goal of
they do not manage a diffusion of growth remains concentrated at specific locations along the route
The purpose of this study was to highlight the correlation between Industrial Heritage, Spatial Planning and Cultural Tourism in the Ruhr area. Theses relations are presented through the IBA Emscher Park, a ten-year-old program of regional planning, and the Industrial Heritage Trail of Ruhr.
Through the synthesis of the characteristics of the case study with the Common Directions of the Institutional Framework of Industrial Heritage, three criteria for the evaluation of the management of said heritage were created. Finally, the findings of these criteria are presented, followed by a critical assessment of the management of Industrial Heritage in the Ruhr area.
Conclusions
selective concept of planning exlusive planning policies
unable to achieve diffusion of development
absence of transparency in participation forms
development for whom
The IBA Emscher Park program, despite its innovative and dynamic aspects of spatial plan- ning (valuing the industrial monuments as resource), failed to address the larger consequences of structural change brought on the region with its deindustrialisation. Especially harmful design practises have been highlighted, such as focusing on the immediate and no long-run changes which had lead to locally concentrated spots of prospeperity and overall stagnation.
alexhaluli@hotmail.com