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ARIS TOTLE UNIV ER SI TY OF THESSA LONIKI | S CHOOL OF ARC HITECTURE ADVANCED DES IGN: INNOVATION AND TRANSDISC IPLINARI TY I N ARCHIT ECTURAL DESI GN POST-GRADUATE PROGRAMM E OF S TUDIES

[ F r o m In f r ast r u ctu re t o i n f o - st r u ctu re ] DIP L OM A THE S IS PROJECT P OSTGR A DUATE P ROGR A M “A DVA NCE D DE S IGN: INNOVAT I ON AND TR A NDIS CIP L INA R IT Y IN A RCHITE CTUR AL DESI G N D E PA RT ME NT OF A RCHITE CTUR E , A R ISTOTL E UNIV E R S IT Y OF THE SSALONI K I 2015-2017 R E S E A RCH AGE NDA “ TR A NS M Y THO LO GI ES” stu den ts: A R E TI DA M VOPOULOU S P YR IDOUL A ST ELI O U

THESSALONIKI 2017 3

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The aim of this diploma thesis is to explore the experience of the subject within the urban fabric, through their sensorium domain. Vision as the main perceptual sensorial state has led the other four to atrophy, especially regarding the perception of the built environment. The sound triggers provided in an urban environment are often underestimated in terms of their value for the construction of the overall experience, and the soundscape is more likely perceived as noise. The goal, through architectural design, is to enhance the overall physical experience as a state of perception of the urban environment of Thessaloniki, with a particular focus on the subject’s senses.

Sound means dissemination of energy and the conversion of energy can produce information. The soundscape in the present condition of the city exists as the indirect result of its urban planning. The present thesis attempts to perceive the soundscape as a different transcript, not as a lack, but as a surplus, that would generate new informational data useful for the subjects. Michel Serres underlines that the noise simply reveals the medium [moyen] or the middle [milieu] which in this case is the intermediate space of the city, the urban context. Architecture is perceived as communication and sound as information. This information is intended to be canalized back to the user as a new sensorial expression.

In order to reconstruct the human perception beyond vision, we started our study by focusing on the characteristics of sound and their impact on the subject, such as amplitude and frequency. Also, the way in which the audio message is being transmitted or expressed through a medium plays a key role setting the framework of our work.

This thesis aims at canalizing the multitude of sound, visual and social informational data, onto the urban fabric of Thessaloniki redefining those qualities that already contains, constructing at some level a beneficial condition, through the architectural mode of mediation. This architectural mediation aims to be expressed in a new infrastructural network, a new urban interface or materiality, towards the direction of the non- yet.

This thesis aims at canalizing the multitude of sound, visual and social informational data, onto the urban fabric of Thessaloniki redefining those qualities that already contains, constructing at some level a beneficial condition, through the architectural mode of mediation. This architectural mediation aims to be expressed in a new infrastructural network, a new urban interface or materiality, towards the direction of the non- yet.

The scale of the architectural project is expressed in the spectrum between urban skin and human skin, analyzed into three sub-scales: a. The virtual layer: is organized as an abstract mechanism of collection, organization and re-distribution of information in the form of a virtual cloud within the urban space. b. The spatial layer: an urban interface, an equipment that involves some of the existing urban infrastructure or any visual and audio information emitted within the city, both in its spatial and informative expression, linking them constantly with the cloud of information. c. The skin layer: a wearable device connected to the information mechanism allowing the interaction of cloud and user. The skin operates as the medium for exchange of bi-directional information between the city and the user, helping the latter to navigate himself through the urban space.

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[ theoritical backround ] [ architectural mediation prothesis ]

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[ From infrastructure to info - structure ] [ on sound ]

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[ theoritical backround ] [ prothesis and materiality ]

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[ From infrastructure to info - structure ] [ thessaloniki_venizelou street]

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[ theoritical backround ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_f//el.venizelou-tsimiski str. ] 13

[ From infrastructure to info - structure ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_a//kleious str. ] 14

[ theoritical backround ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_b//bit bazaar ] 15

[ From infrastructure to info - structure ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_c//venizelou-egnatia str. ] 16

[ theoritical backround ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_d//kapani market ] 17

[ From infrastructure to info - structure ] [ human sensorium domain ]

[ case_study_e//edessis-katouni str. ] 18

[ theoritical backround ] [ human sensorium domain ]

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The case study area is Venizelou Street, one of the most significant axes of Thessaloniki, towards the sea. In order to examine the different architectural qualities we use 7 transverse sections, as a mapping tool. This review leads on 7 different mental maps, that indicate different audio, visual and haptic data, on context.

Specifically, as sound is the main trigger of our experimentation we recorded the city soundscape during the day in order to extract sound differentiations.

Afterwards we tried to visualize diagrammatic instances of the city’s soundscape and extract from them some haptic qualitites, as we can see in this model. At this point the existing sound scape indicates the initial prothesis of the design process.

Furthermore the existing infrastructure in addition to the city’s soundscape and the city’s intangible data, constitute the initial state of the stochastic apparatus.

As far as the infrastructural urban equipment is concerned, this thesis perceives the urban equipment as emerged interfaces, that aim to inform or navigate the subject throughout the city scape.

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[ theoritical backround ]

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[ theoritical backround ] [ city soundscape diagrams ]

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[ theoritical backround ] [ scape mapping ]

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Interfaces are back , or perhaps they never left. The familiar Socratic conceit, from The Phaedrus, of communication as the process of writing directly to the soul of the other has, since the 1980’s and 1990’s returned to the center stage in the discourse around culture and media. The catoptrics of the society of the spectacle is now the dioptrics of the society of control. Reflective surfaces have been overthrown by transparent thresholds.

Frames, windows, doors, and other thresholds are those transparent devices that achieve more the less they do: for every moment of virtuosic immersion and connectivity, for every moment of volumetric delivery, of inopacty , the threshold become one notch more more inoperable. As technology, the more a dioptric device erases the traces of its own functioning (in actually delivering the thing represented beyond), the more it succeeds in its functional mandate; yet this very achievement undercuts the ultimate goal: the more intuitive a device becomes, the more it risks falling out of media altogether, becoming as naturalized as air or as common as dirt. To succeed, then, is at best self-deception and at worst self-annihilation. One must work hard to cast the glow of unwork. Operability engenders inoperability.

Gerard Genette in his book Thresholds calls it “a zone of indecision” between the inside and the outside . It is no longer a question of choice . It is now a question of non choice. The intraface is indecisive for it must always juggle two things [ the edge and the center ] at the same time.

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[ theoritical backround ] [ architectural mediation / prothesis ]

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What exactly is the zone of indecision? What two things face off in the intraface?

Is it a type of aesthetic that implicitly brings together the edge and the center.

The intraface may thus be defined as an internal interface between the edge and the center but one that is now entirely subsumed and contained within the image. This is what constitutes the zone of indecision.

Each part of the interface has its role to play. But what else flows from this?

The existence of the internal interface within the medium is important because it indicates the implicit presence of the outside within the inside. And, again to be unambiguous “outside� means something quite specific: The Social.

Zooming in, this case study proceeds on selecting one of the most significant urban junctions this of Tsimiski and Venizelou Street, because of its plurality of audio triggers, as well as tangible and intangible data.

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[ theoritical backround ] [ the existing urban interfaces ]

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[ theoritical backround ] [ urban soundscape as information ]

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[ the abstract apparatus ] [ the medium creation proccess ]

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As far as the urban interface protocols are concerned, the point cloud, provides data to the urban skin regarding human and city performativity such as social and cultural events, points of interest, news, sound levels etc. These data are being expressed through the materiality of the urban skin. Different types of sensors do transfer data from the point cloud to the urban skin’s interfaces or screens in order to navigate and inform subjects.

According to the level of engagement with the urban skin or the level of privacy a user wishes to have, they could interact whether with public screens, customized interfaces or enclosed booths. Moreover the total design object interacts with local levels of sound and changes its own performativity likewise.

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[ the abstract apparatus ] [ the medium performance ]

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[ the abstract apparatus ]

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[ the abstract apparatus ] [ urban interface protocols ]

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As for the architectural expression of the urban skin it consists of 3 layers. The structural network, the layer of the membrane that acts as interface and the third layer of mechanical equipment, the sensors and the sound absorbing devices.

Each layer is a refined expression of the previous one, starting from the base of the structural system and moving towards the smaller elements of the featherlike equipment. The design process is triggered by the imprint of the intangible point cloud onto the city space, and grows upwards forming instances.

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[ the urban scale ]

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[ the urban scale ] [ crossroad floor plan_Venizelou str.- Tsimiski str. ]

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[ the urban scale ] [ section_Venizelou str. ]

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[ the urban scale ] [ nodal_typology ]

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[ the urban scale ] [ Venizelou// Tsimiski Crossroad view ]

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[ the urban scale ] [ levels of performativity_Venizelou str.- Tsimiski str. ]

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[ the urban scale ]

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[ the urban scale ]

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device protocols ]

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Moving forward to the human wearable device, this expresses the ultimate level of engagement a user could have with the apparatus and the city. The wearable device could be used, either by flaneures who wish to explore the city scape in an augmented way, or by visually impaired people who are in need of help for navigating through the city. The human wearable communicates with the urban skin and through it with the cloud of information. Signals extracted from the cloud are being translated into sound and vibration output to the subject, contributing to their navigation. Also in a more personalized function the mechanisms enclosed onto the wearable detect the area surrounding the user, providing signals regarding possible obstacles and routes.

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device as interface ]

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The design of the human wearable correlates to the design of the urban skin. The design process followed the steps analysed in this diagram. Firstly, we defined the desirable surface the skin would wrap around. We focused on the area of the chest for its proximity to the head. On a next step the initial surface is being subdivided and a set of points is being extracted that would act as the nodes of the skin. Afterwards, these points are forced into movement to create dense and sparse areas and being connected to form the base of the skin. Voids are set on the surface and the mechanisms are placed. In the final step, a second skin of a protective layer is being added. The final device is composed of 3 different layers. The first, structural layer of the base textile. The second layer that indicates and encloses the mechanical parts, this of the protective blobs.

And the third refined layer, that expresses vividly the sensing output.

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device design proccess ]

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device layering ]

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Concluding our narration and reconstructing the initial speculation, initially we desired to deconstruct the existing perception of the urban objects, as having inert capacities, into transparent thresholds setting up the conditions for the context to interact with the subjects. Those transparent thresholds are not only reflected onto the city scape but also onto the human skin expressing the continuum of the medium and the perpetual connection of the subjects and objects.

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[ the human scale ]

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device prototype ]

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[ the human scale ] [ wearable device prototype ]

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[ the human scale ]

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THESSALONIKI 2017 ADVANCED DESIGN : INNOVATION AND TRANSDISCIPLINARITY IN ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN