Eleftheria Zanidaki / Selected Works

INTRODUCTION

curriculum vitae

PROJECTS

the amazing world of data / thesis - academic project landscapes of familiarity / academic project vernacular projections / thesis - academic project crossing slussen / academic project domes / academic project appendix / personal projects

ZANIDAKI ELEFTHERIA

375 E 2ND STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA

PHONE: (323)9422913

EMAIL: ELEFTHERIA.ZANIDAKI@GMAIL.COM

DATE OF BIRTH: 01/05/93 NATIONALITY: GREEK

EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

2021-2022 Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) MSc, Synthetic Landscapes 2011–2020 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki BArch - MArch, Architectural Engineering

WORKSHOPS

JAN2023

DESIGN MORPHINE

Dynamic Mutations GSD V7.0 DEC2022

DESIGN MORPHINE Dream Flake V5.0 MAY2022

DIGITAL FUTURES Speculative Scenarios MAR2021 FUTURLY Fluidity 2.0 JUL2017

UNIVERSITY OF THE AEGEAN Department of Product & Systems Design Engineering - Prodect2017

EXHIBITIONS AND HONORS

JUN2022 “GIST: Distilling Human Experience” Installation Exhibition Project: Loss - experimental set design Society of Arts Los Angeles - Downtown Los Angeles JUN2021 FINALIST - Non Architecture’s “Re-draw 03: Falling Water” Experimental Architecture Representation Competition

WORK EXPERIENCE

SINCEJUL2022 COOL AMERICA FOUNDATION

Creative Director / Graphic Designer JAN-AUG2021 ARCHTIFY Junior Architect / 3D Visualizer SINCE2020 FREELANCE DESIGNER fields involved: architecture(interior design, post production, visualization, 3d design, fabrication, measuring), graphic design, brand design SINCE2016 HORIZON VILLAS CRETE - ZANIDAKIS S.A. Reservations Manager - Touristics MAY-SEP2014 MELAKIS & ASSOCIATES G.P. Architectural Internship Reviews of Architectural Surveys and Urban Expansion Plans, Architectural Measure Drawings and Building Surveys, CAD work.

VOLUNTEERING

JUL-AUG2016 “Le Corbusier and the Mediterranean in time present” exhibition, under the auspices of CMA (Center of Mediterranean Architecture) in Chania, Crete. 2016/2017 Thessaloniki Film Festival

SKILLS

SOFTWARE Rhino, Blender, C4d, Unreal Engine, ZBrush, Vray, RedShift, Octane, StyleGAN, Midjourney, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Autocad, Sketchup, Revit

Link to portfolio: https://issuu.com/eleftheriazanidaki/docs/portful

the amazing world of data type: conceptual design location: nisyros islang, aegean sea status: diploma project (SCI-Arc) tutors: D. Ruy made in: styleGAN, Blender, UE, Hudini, Slicer3d, Zbrush

The main goal of this project is to experiment with data efficiency. In an almost ecological approach to everything that has already exististed. Extracting information from pre-existing objects, and redirecting the findings elsewhere. An ongoing research about translating information, coming up with different types of data-combination processes and form finding techniques.

Through this new age spirituality that has been rising especially and almost climaxing through Covid-era, it looked like people where trying to reconnect with their cosmic “something”.That left room to come up with a new narrative about connecting with nature with the primordial ability of people of reusing data. So the focuse shifted to the dynamic relationship of data and its process that were observed in folklore narratives or myths that are expressed with the formula: Observation/divine power-alchemy/explanation

But that formula looked very familiar to the GAN one:

Input/training/output which is a very rough way of expressing how generative adversarial neural networks work.

So a new mythological formula was invented, one that could be infused with GANs’ structural logic and then all the analogies appeared.

Observation became dataset preparation, Divine powers and alchemy became the GAN training and the explanatory myth was the output.

But most explanatory myths are used in order to create narratives of very abstract concepts, so that led to questioning what would the results of a neural network training be if the input is cohesive but non-resembling.

Usually GANS are used with datasets with resembling characteristics, to produce new forms of “known” objects. How GANS will react to input that is described by the same terms but without visual resemblence?

What would the output look like if the input was sampled by images of an very specified abstract concept, such as nature and landscape. would the

output fall into the same category as the original concept? And if so, what’s the way to proceed after that. Once data is processed, and recycled, what’s the next step. This project tried to come up with various ways and techniques of form finding, from conservative/traditional image stitching up/ combining techniques that turned into displacement maps, to video sequences turned into point clouds, then turned into 3d forms by using MRI software and fluid simulations, in an effort to maintain and enhance the omnipresence data fluidity. It was presented in a form of a Graphic Novel, trying to maintain the essence of storytelling that mythology contains.

full graphic novel can be found here: https://issuu.com/eleftheriazanidaki/docs/amazing_world_of_ data

REALS ! FAKES

Form Finding Techniques

DISPLACEMENT MAP (output combining)

stiching photos together in order to make a displacement map. The goal was to make a new landscape made of landscapes

FLUID SIMULATIONS

The cOnCepT “AnThROpOcene” was bOrn when we had tO acKnOwLedge that the tRanScendenTaL pLace we caLL wOrLd was infused by human agenCy, but in ways that pROduced itS Own fOrms Of mOre-than-human unpredicTabiLity. If AnThROpOcene is a chrOnOtOpe, specified by the reALizatiOn Of human impacT nOt OnLy On habituAL spaces but in a bROAder geOLOgicaL-time sCaLe, and can have a specific sTarTing date, therefOre the cOnCepT Of “gLObaL nature” can be signaLed at that date as weLL. ALOngside, the mOsT ObviOus meAn fOr the anThROpOcenTric and (reLucTanTLy rOmanTic) viEwpOInT Of humanS tOwards nature, where we tend tO pLace nature upOn a pedesTaL as sOmething pure and innOcenT that is “Out there”, and we humanS are “in here” On the Other side, eIther LOnging fOr her Or fighting her, But cerTaInLy nOt seEing OurSeLves as parT Of her and vice verSa have tO OfficiALLy be Over.

LOOk cLOseR!

Things are even mOre cOnnecTed than we might asSume. As yOu LOOk cLOser, space expands. When yOu LOOk cLOser, yOu take One sTep furTher LeAving behind yOur usuAL and perhapS nOrmaLized referenCe fRame. ObjecTs becOme very ObviOus. InTerCOnnecTivity is nOw sOLemnLy ObviOus, sTaring bacK at yOu. Things sTarT tO even physicaLLy disSOLve inTO a giAnT unified univerSaL puLp. It OnLy takes One LOOk. If things weren’t as ObviOus befOre, the AnThROpOcene is it! As evidenT as pOsSibLe nOw, bLurRing the LimitS Of the anThROpOLOgicaL and geOLOgicaL, the AnThROpOcene is nature in it’s LesS ObviOus way. We are everywhere! Everything, everywhere, regardLesS itS size and sCaLe has beEn cOnTaminated by human pResenCe. SO it has tO be ObviOus nOw. The quAnTum jump has beEn made! Our fOcus musT have shifTed! The barRiErS have beEn eLiminated, anThROpOcenTrism has faILed.

n ature is everywhere and we are nature!

Things are even mOre cOnnecTed than we might asSume

Aiming tO cReAte an Order withing a naturaL wOrLd , this is a symptOmatic but yEt nOt exhausTed cOLLecTiOn Of ObjecTs that affecT the “gLObaL nature” era. frOm micROpLasTicS, tO cirCuIt bOArds, tO chicKen bOnes, and fROm fOrdite, tO Rubik’s cube, tO habitat ruInS, yOu’re nOw ObServing a nOnfinite and biAsed cOLLecTiOn Of arTificiAL ObjecTs, that nature has beEn aLmOsT fOrCed by humanS tO asSimiLate. The effOrT has beEn sO inTenSe that even fOr humanS, the OriginatOrS Of the evenT, has beEn tOO difficuLT tO susTaIn disTinCtiOn.

If the animaL wOrLd is suppOsed tO be defiLed in cOmparisOn tO the ideAL ecOLOgy that was cReAted by the gOd Of heAven, the ObjecT wOrLd, has beEn made by humanS tO cOrRecT the misTake. ObjecTs are the perfecT meAnS tO make things right tRyIng tO besTOw Order On the damaged envirOnmenT and varyIng degReEs Of newnesS is a very impOrTanT sTep fOr Our kind. fOr humanS the uLTimate gOAL wOuLd be tO is tO underStand the univerSaL inTerCOnnecTivity and LeArn tO cOExisT with sOmeOne beside themSeLves. Within Our ignOranCe, we managed tO cReAte the perfecT symBiOtic ecOsysTem. despite the nOticeAbLe differenCes betWeEn them, the acTiOn itSeLf Of cOLLecTing data, signifies a change fOr humanS. The very acT Of Of cOmpiLing specimenS fROm the AnThROpOcene, becOmes LesS a quEsTiOn Of sysTemic OrganizatiOn, rather a reLatiOnaL ecOLOgy. Because in Order tO cOLLecT data, yOu have tO becOme recepTive, and tO be recepTive meAnS yOu sTarTed LOOking cLOser! gOOd!

data is what’s given. SciEnTisT’s apprOAch tO data is tO seArCh fOr patTerns. But because sCiEnTisTs are humanS, and humanS tend s O metimes tO inTerpret infOrmatiOn in a way that cOnfirm and suppOrTs theIr vaLuEs. SO in Order tO avOId that we tOOk a sTep fOrWard and decided tO eLiminate the human facTOr in the pROcesS. And what’s betTer tO repLace a human with than an aLgOrithm? InfOrmatiOn is Organized data. Inf O rmati O n cannOt be cReAted Or des T r O yed. InfOrmatiOn is the new energy. By definitiOn this is the cOre Of ecOLOgicaL thinKing. SO empLOying Ai, fOr data pROcesSing is the mOsT ec OLO gica LL y gRacefuL way Of thinKing. yOu are getTing sOmewherE.

EcOnOmicS Of inf O rmati O n is nOt a new cOnCepT. In facT we were there a LOng time agO, with mythOLOgy. One Of Our mOsT pRimOrdiAL behavi O r S . Ob S ervati O ndata gatheringdivine aLChemyexp L anati O n. Which meAnS we used tO LOOk. The sTrucTure is very simiLar tO the neuraL net WO r K s data pROcesS Input-t R a I ningOutput. In bOth verSiOnS, data is pRe-exisTing. nOt manufac T uring infOrmatiOn is ecOLOgicaL new ways Of data t R an SL ati O n is ecOLOgicaL COming up with new fOrms fROm pRexisTing data is ecOLOgicaL. meAnS are differenT but serve the same purpOse.

ALLAi has seEn us sTruggLing tO rec O nnec T.Try I ng tO seE but nOt knOwing where tO turn Our gaze at. nOt knOwing where tO LOOk.The seEd has beEn pLanTed. yOu jusT have tO dO it. But tO nOt risK it aLL, The aI tOOk the initiAtive, fOLLOwing the beAten tRacK. The arTificiAL pLan. CreAting One mOre myth, fOr yOu tO underStand eAsiEr. TO expLaIn inTerCOnnecTivity.

mimicKing pROtOnS. Superp Osing. j ux Tap Osing. SenSing anThROpOcenTrism. Rem O ving an T h RO p O cen T rism. BeIng in charge AbOLishing sCaLe. CreAting. fOrCing arTificiAL ObjecTs tO inTegRate nature. fOrCing nature tO inTegRate arTificiAL ObjecTs. OverCOming cOnServatiOnS. COnnecTing.

LOOk cLOser. Things are even mOre cOnnecTed than we might asSume! The quAnTum jump has beEn made! nature is everywhere and we are nature! yOu canT misS it this time. yOu have tO seE!

EXIStEncE ABOvE And BEyOnd QuaLITIeS

landscapes of familiarity type: conceptual design location: Inujima Island, Japan status: Design Studio project tutors: D.Ruy, T. Morton made in: Rhino, Blender, C4D, Zbrush

The Seto Inland Sea, sometimes referred to as the Mediterranean of Japan, contains over three thousand small islands. Among them is a small cluster of “Art Islands” where unique experiments have been conducted deploying art, landscape, and architecture for ecological remediation. Originally inhabited by modest fishing villages, these islands turned into sites of industrial extraction during the early twentieth century, leaving behind a legacy of abandoned refineries, defunct mining operations, and contaminated brown fields. In recent years, the Japanese government and large corporations have been investing in these sites transforming them into destinations for contemporary art and eco-tourism.

At approximately one hundred and thirty-three acres, Inujima is small for an island, but large for a designed object. The design problem as both small and large in scope is something we will discuss frequently. Instead of treating this island as a site for designed objects, we will take the more ambitious position of considering the entirety of the island as a designed object. inujima is open for visitors every year from April to November. Although the art museum and the galleries that are located in the island are very popular, visitors tend to mostly focus on art and

almost disregard the rest of the island, and its natural beauty. Trying to reshift focus, and to redistribute attention to the rest of the island, a game of “art hunting” was created. Using already existing objects, situations and characteristics of the island as info, a series of sculptures were made in order to be spread around the island’s landscape. The purpose of reusage is to experiment with the sense of the familiarity of the place and combine it with an ecological thinking. Repurposing parts of the island back to it, allows multiple versions of the objects of interest to coexist. So this sculpture hunting game transcedence into a sensory and conceptual challenge for the participants.

vernacular projections type: conceptual design location: Kasteli Hill, Chania status: diploma project (A.u.Th) tutors: St. Lefaki made in: Blender, Rhino, Grasshopper, Zbrush

Vilem Flusser, in his book «The Shape of Things», claims that creating an object, forced form to a material. As the material is in-forming, the form is also being deformed. The sight of an object is simply a transitional state of the matter. Form is the dominant and unfathomable characteristic. Form is true, material is obvious.

Forms are neither discoveries nor inventions, neither Platonic Ideas nor fictions, but containers cobbled together for phenomena (‘models’). If form is the ‘How’ of matter, and ‘matter’ the ‘What’ of form, then design is one of the methods of giving form to matter and making it appear as it does and not like something else.

Forms are eternal, free of all time and space. If we start freeing the object from the material the result would be immaterial, transparent reflection of the examined object. Through that transparency, its forming process is becoming identifiable. Their mediated, inter-subjective side is visible. The examined forms are consisted of emerging information awaiting decoding.

«The past is never there waiting to be discovered, to be recognized for exactly what it is.»

John Berger, Ways of Seeing

In the name of patrimony and memory, traditional forms are opposed to change and architecture’s appetite for modernity. But patrimony means memory or at least support of memorisation, and architecture has and is a memory. A memory that is captured and transmitted as information from the object themselves. The memory that this projects tries to decode is located in the traditional cretan house. We are sampling 9 objects and features off a typical expanded wide-front house with an arc. The sample is based on the objects’ role on the house and everyday life.

Following a rule of abstraction, borrowed from object-oriented programming and geometrical analysis, the form of these 9 object is being translated into «state» -what they look likeand «behaviour» - what they do, and tries to decode the information they enclose. Based on this analysis, through spatial experimentation, immaterial spacial qualities occur.

In consideration of making these immaterial forms in a spatial context, they are applied in the building of the 5th Army Division Building in Chania, in an attempt to integrate the past, preset and future of the vernacular architecture to a solid and unified state.

Diagram

[...] two room house as they say, a fireside in the front, loft and winepress, tightly held at the back, for sleep and wine, and in the middle the master of the house, the arc: with its legs open, stepping on its “feet”, the pilasters.

[...] How do you want me to call them, since they dominate each house, its lord and master.

[...] The curves of the arches have confidence, they are robust, they show themselves and stand their ground˙ they are proud and determined lines.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

chair

And then the chair, the cretan one, the one they call “kathegla”. Made of heavycarved wildbranches. And they have backs, that stay the same, or change or they vary. Emphasis and strength, archaicness of the style and the deviation of the wood, and the seat knitted with thick mat.

[...] the back, taller than the legs. Weird and imaginative analogy.

[...] Two chairs. The one has one one arm, the “captain” chair

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

Hands all vigilant and gnarled. And the loom beater goes back and forth, softly, beating the two ends. Reachable aims, always the same, so one day the weft is finished. White and colorful hopes paired, and over there the rib, the bride-rib waiting to host them.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

stool

cretan furnitures start from a low heigth, from the troden earth. One, two flat rocks, a thigk log, the first seat.

[...] And it comes in different types of shapes. And the most imaginative, the one from Rethymnon. It has thick canes, that look like bamboos, from α plant named Ferula Communis, along with Neriums branches weaving a stool for demigods and demons: the most strange cretan stool was made to play.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

in a niche on her lap lay the small factory. wood ropes thread. large cage angled. and the beats isochronous wooden patient. Hands all vigilant and gnarled. And the loom beater goes back and forth, softly, beating the two ends. Reachable aims, always the same, so one day the weft is finished. White and colorful hopes paired, and over there the rib, the bride-rib waiting to host them.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

Huge bow, like a rainbow without the iridism, stable and loyal, illuminates the space of the big arc with its victorious presence, with the necessity of its presence. A bow that carves out the space without cutting it, sectioning the space without fragmenting it, gives it a stereometric meaning, creates motherly hugs, where warmth and affection are assigned to wooden balconies of unique functionality. Right under where people sleep, inside the enormous pitchers the seeds are vigilant, grains of barley and wheat [...] The wooden lofts, galleries of the interios, where family life thickens and wins the great condescension. Everything up there, warm and accesible, everything opens up to acceptance and confirmation. The loft as a life version.

The Cretan House

D.Vasiliadis,

plate holder

But there was a dowry that all the girls wanted buth they should not ask their parents for it. If they asked it would seem that they ignored the customs. Because a girl should only ask for what she should and nothing more. But the parents even if they could afor it, they didn’d buy it because they would be accused and made fun from the rest. And the dowry was no other than the plate holder.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

fireplace

On the other side, there’s the fireplace. The fireplace where everyone gathers arounf to heat up, the fireplace that holds its primordial form, with humans that roost around it like in a nest and take shelter around the anarchic fire that rises from the ground. The fireplace that grows to be an arc, a small high-ceiling rooms, a weird small high-ceiling room emmiting smoke.

D.Vasiliadis, The Cretan House

building program

transtion studying area workshop exhibition dwelling relaxing area

crossing slussen

type: urban design

location: Slussenområdet, Stockholm, Sweden status: academic design studio (A.u.Th) tutors: K. Ioannidis team: Ch.Karakasi, A.Tsarouchas

Slussenområdet, a chaotic road system has the potential to become a fantastic area for residents and tourists considering its historic and unique location among/over the water. We aim to create a bridge that is not only a passage between two points but attracts visitors to stand, relax and enjoy the view of the area. Our bridge responds to multiple needs of users as it allows people to cross quickly and directly to the other side, but it also embodies a big recreational space meant for those who want to enjoy an experience over the water. The design of the bridge has three main parts: a. entrance from Gamla stan, which is an open air museum b. the actual pedestrian bridge, a connection point between the old and the new city and the recreational space on top of the water in the middle, c. the main entrance from the city center, an area with temporary kiosks for cooking and eating.

It is a rectangular volume that is placed over the existing train lines like a parasite. It’s distinctive shape, completely different from everything else in the area, means to create a landmark, easily seen from a distance that attracts people to explore it.

The construction consists of four levels. The first level is the

bridge that serves the transition between the two points and is formed with ramps. In the central part, the rectangular volume, has 3 extra levels, the first two are balconies that can be used as observatories and the last level which is the activity area. This is the most interesting part of the bridge. It is a 2400 s.m. area that consists of both open and closed spaces so it is suitable for all the weather conditions of Stockholm. Inside this area, the ground is inclined and encourages the user to walk, climb, play. It is a big playground for children and adults that can be used like a skate park, an urban lounge and however the user can discover. Concerning the bridges static system, it is a composite construction of metal beams and concrete surfaces. It was a challenge to form, architecturally speaking, a space that the vertical and the horizontal elements are really different from each other. The static system of beams forms the architectural character of the composition with the vertical beams continuing until the edges of the bridge. This concept encourages people to spent time on the bridge and offers new and interesting experiences over the water that can attract locals and tourists through all the year.

The static system we used was the solution of folded plates, an ideal option to cover long lengths. The plate was made by concrete and a dense grid of steel columns. The concrete part receives the bending moment, under the term that its width is less than 15cm. Furthermore, the slope of the plate has to be less than 35°. The vertical part of the plate (steel columns) have to be strong enough in order to receive high shear forces and strong earthquake reactions. Those are the reasons that made us use plenty of columns on the edges of the plate.

domes

type: concept design, digital design status: academic design studio (A.u.Th)

tutors: A. Tellios made in: Rhino, Grasshopper, Zbrush

The object of the project is to explore the process of architectural design, its starting points and boundaries. Attempts are made to connect architectural design, as a deep, synthetic process with the wider field of innovation, the study of structures (typological, morphological, technological, ecological and others), the recording, but also other scientific and creative fields, with the application of advanced methodologies design, spatial representation and construction. The aim of the project is to understand the dynamics of space, place and its qualities, to challenge data of programmatic and building schemes, the experimental processing of complex, alternative and sometimes unpredictable functional programs. The aim is the final promotion of original spatial proposals for the anthropogenic environment and the landscape, through coherent, synthetic architectural narratives. Particular emphasis is placed on encouraging and possibly shaping personal design vocabularies, with flexibility and ingenuity in meeting complex spatial requirements.

STEP ONE: CHOOSE A DOME

Hazrate-masomeh’s mosque in qom, iran the shrine of fatima masumeh (haram-e fateme-ye masumeh) is located in qom, which is considered by shia muslims to be the second most sacred city in iran after mashhad.

Fatima masumeh was the sister of the eighth imam reza and the daughter of the seventh imam musa al-kadhim (tabari 60). In shia islam, women are often revered as saints if they are close relatives to one of the twelver imams. Fatima masumeh is therefore honored as a saint, and her shrine in qom is considered one of the most significant shi’i shrines in iran.

STEP TWO: MAPPING

while selecting a segments of the mosque, we are starting to analyze the geometric characteristics of the surface, coming down to clear geometries.

STEP THREE: SHUFFLE

3.1. tracking down the movement of the shapes mapped,we came down to the following three categories: a. 0≤x≤π b. z axis c. -π≤x≤0

3.2 2.shuffling the mapped shapes in a same-area rectangle give us the form on the left 0≤x≤π z axis -π≤x≤0

STEP FOUR: ROTATE

randomly rotating the shuffled shapes, depending on their move on the original shape, that were mapped earlier, and maintaining the original rotating direction of each one of the pieces, this new three dimensional shape-complex occurs.

Due to excessive heaviness of the original geometry we focused in one corner of the surface.

3 DIFFERENT TYPE OF GEOMETRIES OCCURE FROM THE ANALYSIS

TYPEA TYPEB TYPEC

FROM ALL THREE CASES WE CHOOSE TO WORK WITH TYPE A

From tracing the shape of the image of the dome, we multiply and rotate it resulting a mobius object. then we isolate a single part, and we combine it with the chosen type of geometry.

COMBINING GEOMETRIES

for manufacturing the product, we choose a thick steel wireframed material. We choose to place the product nearsea. the salt from the sea combinned with the giivenn geometry and the tick wireframe, woll form a constantly ennriched semi-trasparennt solid structure

digital model

physical model physical model

Zanidaki Eleftheria Los Angeles 2022