transmythologies
| Acknowledgement | I’d like to thank Onassis Foundation Scholarship Program for its great support and contribution to my participation in «Advanced Design_Innovation & Transdisciplinarity» Master Program.
CONTENTS
L O G O S
P R A X I S
01 | DISSERTATION [ p.1] Architecture as Information: Towards ecological governance in the city
02 | THESIS PROJECT [ p.2 - 6 ] Catharsis Matter 03 | PRAXIS STUDIO 02 [ p.7 - 10 ] Istanbul At Threshold
04 | APOMECHANES WORKSHOP [ p.11- 12 ] T E C H N E
Sound[scapes] 05 | PAVILION [ p.13 - 14 ] Nodum 06 | FABRICATION PROTOCOLS [ p.15 - 16 ] Moire Studies
01 | DISSERTATION _ Architecture As Information
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Project | Dissertation Title | Architecture as Information _ Towards emergent ecological governance in the city Supervisors | Zaroukas M. _ Gourdoukis D. Student | Iliadi I. Presentation Date | 27 January 2017
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LOGOS
This dissertation thesis is focused on the way that material and immaterial infrastructure, serving planetary computation systems, govern contemporary urban space by controlling flows and constructing political subjects. The city, embedded in a complex global urbanism - where sovereignty is detached from the occupation of space - is approached as a spatial software, programming urban space in terms of mobility and segmentation, both of people and data packets, through alternating virtual and physical interfaces. Its dynamics stems from the latent disposition of the infrastructure, related to the interplay of organizational structures and prevailing narratives within urban environment. Furthermore, the subjects – users of platforms, open to multiple and differentiating processes of subjectification, are getting composed and decomposed in a contradictory manner. Having composed their individuality through the overabundance of information, they diffuse it in a multiplying range of computational entities, human or not. Consequently, human figure tends to become one more agent in a complex ecology of alternatives. In these contexts, architecture, regarded as spatial information and action, shifts speculation and design from the static objects of the urban hardware to the composition of unpredictable scenarios of active forms and hybrid systems of computational software and architectural programming, pointing to an alternative distribution of powers in urban governance and to the re-design of political subjects, in an ecological approach.
02 | THESIS PROJECT _ Catharsis Matter
Project | Thesis Project Title | Catharsis Matter Students | Iliadi Ioanna - Mechili Arianna Presentation Date | 16 June 2017
Turning to etymology, “catharsis” represents a concept of “purification” or “cleansing”. This thesis project places emphasis on contemporary subject condition, formed by everyday overabundance of information and diffused in a multiplicity of technological entities. Instead, an ecological approach frames subjects in relation to their social environment and urban ecosystems, through design accomplished by “catharsis protocols”. Within Thessaloniki’s urban context, historical Ottoman Baths are used as a starting point of such explorations, in terms of ritual protocols, transition processes, introspection-extroversion qualities. These dynamics are remapped in our case study, Doxas Stream area. Its rich geomorphology, plantation and climate, conditions of inclusion or exlusion from its urban environment (perceptual context) are combined with the concept of time (conceptual context) , extracted from the historical baths’ ritual through processes of physical and spiritual deceleration.
PRAXIS |
// In our model of catharsis we encourage the interaction between interdependencies. Between human and webs of natural entities, prompting an approach far from the opposition between subject and object, mind and matter. We propose freeform events, that support the dynamics of society and of self at the same time, releasing new subjectivities. //
Our intention is to activate a generative mechanism through “deceleration protocols” producing connective flows between urban and natural elements, extending this variable of time to a multiscalar approach, - from subject level to urban level- and expressing a diffusion of the ritual in urban space.The ultimate flows emerge as a result of the constant dialogue between natural processes and human forces, not as binary conditions but as transitional forces from areas of intense urban mobility to micro-environments of physical deceleration and mental decongestion. The system of the transitional flows activates further processes of deceleration of natural flows, reinterpreting the complex topography of the site and locally perturbing it, in order create conditions of habitability, according to natural logics rather than construct static artifacts. The territory is regenerated and emerges through its re-crystallization based on programmatic tetrahedra geometries, integrating principles of natural ecosystems and their material properties.
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02 | THESIS PROJECT _ Catharsis Matter
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| PRAXIS
thesis
thesis
The ultimate hybrid landscape emerges as a combination of unmanipulated landscape and a more geometrically defined one, configurated by the internal rules of the space.
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PRAXIS
Reintroducing bathing experience to context, engraved paths in the landscape and new plantations provide a variety of promenade experiences and deceleration movements, while our structures skins act as dynamic filters between interior and exterior, interacting with temperature, acoustics, light and shadows. Sand and gravel coming from the excavated site are reintroduced as parts of an earthy mixture, assembing solid masses rooted in the natural topography, while weathered steel panels provide interaction with the natural elements of the landscape.
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02 | THESIS PROJECT _ Catharsis Matter
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PRAXIS
03 | PRAXIS STUDIO 02 _ Istanbul At Threshold
istanbul
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Project | Praxis Studio 02 Title | Istanbul At Threshold Students | Iliadi I. _ Steliou S. Project Year | 2016
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| PRAXIS
This project takes place in a remarkable region of Istanbul alongside the historical Theodosian Walls, consisting the boundary between the historic core of Istanbul’s peninsula and the modern urban expansion towards west. The extended zone of historical agricultural plots alongside the walls, shaping a fundamental urban green corridor counter to the intense competition for metropolitan space, became the springboard for an alternative narrative about the future identity of the area. On the one side, the vegetable fields sustain productive values charged with local cultural characteristics and on the other side, metropolitan development reflects consumerism models within globalized contexts. So, what if we could approach this condition differently, beyond conflicts, and create a narrative in which new patterns of social interaction may emerge, by redefining, the established models of production – distribution consumption, especially in reference to a megacity like Istanbul? In a sense, how can we critically invert and leverage global patterns reflected through consumption and waste, as a vehicle for producing and sustaining – cultural, economic, environmental- locality? The proposal oscillating between nature and artifice, globality and locality, realism and utopia narrates an urban future actualized by a complex ecology, equally composed by human, environmental, material and immaterial forces.
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PRAXIS
istanbul
03 | PRAXIS STUDIO 02 _ Istanbul At Threshold
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EZIO - APOMECHANES
EZIO - APOMECHANES
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PRAXIS
Our design “mechanism” triggered by the latent forces of the area is spatially expressed as a dense forest of vertical elements, creating an hybrid infrastructure programmatically embedded in a feedback schema with the fields: farmers sell directly their products in vegetable markets, while the waste produced on the site – including non sold or no longer fresh vegetables – is stored and managed through composting processes in experimental labs, so that it can be reintroduced as fertilizers to a new cycle of production. On the one side, the “forest” as a flexible structure creates inner enclaves accommodating market places , areas of social interaction, elevated labs and public awareness spaces, while, on the other side, it acts as collector and distributor of energy via the integration of rainwater (water pipes) and solar energy (optical fibres) collection systems. In addition to this infrastructure, distortions related to the ground morphology, expressed as cavities accommodating auxiliary spaces, water reservoirs or waste tanks, redefine the landscape and emphasize the role of composting labs as emerging bulbs preparing the soil for new events to come.
04 | APOMECHANES WORKSHOP_ Sound[Scapes]
NODUM 04
11 | T E C H N E
Project | Apomechanes Workshop Title | Sound[Scapes] Tutors| Willems D. _ Blasetti E. Students | Iliadi I. _ Steliou S. _ Vasilatou B. _ Mingxin H. Project Year | 2016
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The machinic character of “Apomechanes� Workshop refers to techniques and concepts of algorithmic processes as means for design. This studio, regarding the sculpted Theater of Aixoni of N. Golanda, investigates the inherent potential of computation to generate space and engage self-organisation in the design process. The main intention of the team focuses on the exploitation of morphogenetic possibilities of soundwaves, as a stochastic and spatial tool able to regenerate and resculpt the site, through the constant interaction of sounds, stemming both from the urban fabric and the natural landscape of our case study. Sound characteristics, like frequency and amplitude, are involved in a generative mechanism reading and reforming the site in the form of an activated point cloud. Both the original sculpture and the surrounding theatre are rescultpted, in a way that the whole composition could act as a vibrant musical instrument, taking as input the sound stimuli and producing, not only a new landscape, but also unpredictable sound effects.
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NODUM
05 | PAVILION _ Nodum
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Project | Techne 02 _ Pavilion Title | Nodum Supervisor | Simeonidou I. Students | Damvopoulou A. _ Iliadi I. _ Mittal S. _ Nousias C. Project Year | 2016 The "Nodum" Pavilion aims to exploit contemporary digital design for the construction of a prototype. The idea was to establish a seamless workflow from design to production, including heuristic approaches, digital tools and parametric modeling techniques to control thicknesses, intersections and size of items, as well as the overall geometry of the pavilion. Shape, form, assembly and static function were considered from the very beginning of the design process as interrelated parameters.
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The proposed structure is based on planar rectangular panels, arranged in interweaving frames and assembled via simple notches. The 644 unique panels' assembly is accomplished with 4 notches on each one, through which it is attached to 4 other panels. An important challenge of the proposing structural system is its successful implementation on curved surfaces, in a way that ensures, not only the accuracy of the curvature of the final geometry through the knots, but also its stability. For that purpose, pavilion’s overall shape was based on an ellipsoidal surface. During the design process, a range of optimization techniques are used, so that a successful implementation is ensured. Taking into account both statics and aesthetics, the width of the pieces differentiates, as those placed on the upper part of the structure are smaller in width, introducing gradient variation, as well as interesting light and shadow effects. The material selected for the scaled model is medium density mdf, due to aesthetic, static and material processing reasons. Last but not least, the adoption of a numbering method successfully relating each piece to its neighbors, greatly facilitated the organization of the pieces and their assembly, saving time and effort.
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Project | Fabrication Protocols Title | Moiré Studies Supervisor | Gourdoukis D. Students | Iliadi I. _ Mechili A. Project Year | 2017
[A] MODULATED SURFACES This project is mostly an experimentation on algorithms (especially through Grasshopper software) dealing with the production of modulated surfaces. The variations are fabricated through CNC milling machine (3axes) , taking advantage of its capacity both to sculpt larger formations and engrave paths, directing the production of the final surface. The examples cited here focus on the creation of a variety of surfaces based on superimposed patterns transformed (scaled and rotated) via fibonacci sequences. The superimposition of patterns is inspired by moire patterns and their ability to create unpredictable visual effects. In our case, our sculpted surfaces aim to explore these possibilities in space through digital fabrication. Experimentations both on the form of the patterns and the cnc milling machine engraving techniques led us in a series of interesting results.
[B] OBJECT ORIENTED DESIGN _ MBOX The second part of our investigations on moire patterns’ aesthetic effect is object - oriented and focuses on the design and fabrication of a netbook portable stand - Mbox. Made by plywood and fabricated through laser cutting machine, Mbox includes two (2) layers of surfaces : the upper one is stable, serving as a netbook stand, while the lower one consists of two sliding surfaces, serving as mouse and mobile phone stands. Additionally, M-box’s perforate frames enable the ventilation of the netbook avoiding overheat. Moire patterns’ illusive effects combine ergonomics and aesthetics.
15 | T E C H N E
The fabricated products of this class were included in Furnidec Business Exhibition at Helexpo (Thessaloniki/ 17 - 19 /03 / 2017).
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06 | FABRICATION PROTOCOLS _ Moire Studies