My Portfolio by Michail Vlasopoulos

MICHAIL

VLASOPOULOS

A R C H I T E C T - E N G I N E E R

T E C H N I C A L U N I V E R S I T Y A

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Note: The following projects featuring in the portfolio, contain personal or teamwork material that have been executed using composite techniques of rendering, comprising digital collage and hand-drawing.

CUCKOO HOUSE 60persons รท 30houses

ARCHITECTURE OF THE ASSEMBLAGE

Three Beds, A trip and a Calendar

Live Architectural COMPETITION

THE CONCRETE CIRCUS

SOCIODESIGN FOUNDATION COMPETITION

DOMESTIC imprisonment

DIPLOMA PROJECT

THESIS PROJECT

SPACE PRIZE COMPETITION

EUROPAN 2009

VARDO TERMINAL

TAULOR house FORD house

Constructing the UNBUILT

DO.CO.CO.MO WORKSHOP

MOVING ATHENS

HOLLOWING OUT the Bijenkorf

URBAN FOLD

Dweller on the Roof

apo.theosis

jukebots

apo.domisis

KERAMEIKOS PUBLIC SQUARE

URBAN DESIGN PERISOS

COM1X COMPETITION

COMIX02 COMPETITION

PUBLICATION

EXHIBITION

AWARDS

ESSAY

ART

URBAN

DESIGN

RESEARCH

COMPETITION

ACADEMIC

C U C KOO H OUSE 60 persons ÷

30 rooms

DIPLOMA PROJECT 2009 The Cuckoo’s House is a building specifically designed to accommodate 60 persons -as individuals or as an assembly-. We implemented the existing associations within this particular social group to construct a model of co-habitation where the inhabitants can share the given space and equipment according to their custom needs. Such a model that depends on an existing group of people and not on a sheer architectural fantasy, needs a plethora of data to quantify the space ‘in between’ them. We decided to utilize a survey tool, a means to record, collect and classify needs, desires and personal lifestyles. We imposed a series of constraints on ourselves, which would accordingly guide us through the

process of design, until the emergence of the final form. Such a ‘confrontation with the given data’ introduces a method of collecting, processing and utilizing information, deriving from an existing association of people and applying them into an architectural model. The purpose of this experiment is to introduce an architectural genre that acts as a means of documenting ‘plastic impulses’ and investing built matter with them. These impulses refer on ‘human desires that shape malleable nature’ to quote George Santayana (1906). Exploring the physical possibilities and the theoretical potentialities of such a futuristic -yet imminent- scenario where the production of space focuses on a given manifold of individual desires we take the following steps: Starting from the survey, to the programmatic disassembly of the house, to a variable modular unit, to the construction of a wider home.-

ACADEMIC NTUA 2009 Collaborator: DIMITRA GELAGOTI SUPERVISOR: PROF P. TOURNIKIOTIS RESEARCH BY PROJECT

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IVIDUAL ROOMS IND

60+ ROOMS

INDIVIDUAL ROOMS Χ200

construction materials

PROGRAM GREEN

METRO

CITY/ STREET

METHODOLOGY: FROM THE DISASSEMBLY OF THE HOUSE TO A VARIABLE MODULE UNIT SAVING SPACE WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODEL OF CO-HABITATION.

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MAPPING THE EXISTING HOUSES

8 These plastic impulses constantly changing

the pipelines of the statistical tools can lead to a

and aiming towards ‘ultimate forms’ are being

linear perspective on intricate phenomena, but

collected and measured just like any other

still inaugurates an era (pretty close to the one we

physical property around us, implementing

live in) of measuring literally everything; a time that

highly sophisticated, supersensitive instruments

provides insights to complexities, correlations

that never cease to probe for new material needs.

and assumptions invisible to the naked eye. This

These materials are what the houses and cities of

process of the quantification will continue to

humans are equipped with and not the warrants

focus on more and more aspects of life, ranging

of the architect. In order for us to augment the

and comparing every possible trait of human

range of architectural design we need a kind

society, in search for rules, causes and axioms,

of ‘a statistical expressionism’ that, through the

or on the other hand, explaining non causal

plurality of the group under investigation, could

processes within the ‘machine of history’. It is

overcome the one-sided subjectivity of the given

there and then, that the human crowd shall be

architect and generate a ‘artificial informality’

studied just like a liquid, its fluidity and viscosity

inspired by the potentiality of the contemporary

being measurable. And given the nature of this

metropolis. After all, cities do ‘design themselves’

scenario, the image of the contemporary city

and as soon as they don’t do that, they cease

would only be accessible and sensible in these

to be cities. It goes without saying that the

terms and not through our individual eyes

rationalization of desire and processing through

looking at the street; for good or for bad.

DOCUMENTING DOMESTIC EQUIPMENT PREFERENCES

60 UNIQUE MODULES COMPOSED BY A SURVEY-BASED SPACE SYNTAX

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FLOOR LAYOUT. MODULES ADDING UP TO A BIGGER HOUSE

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a. storeroom 13

VISTAS OF THE INTERIOR. WORK SLEEP COOK BATHE

d. bedroom

THESIS PROJECT 2008

A RC H I T E C T U RE OF T H E A S S E M B L AG E Documenting an Athenian Urbanity

hile in search for a city on the map, we might need to address to its exterior: fields that are not yet carto-

graphed, whether because they are located in the periphery, or because they constitute a detail. In that case, new words could be used to describe the urban phenomenon. The term and meaning of the «συνονθύλευµα» (<stuffing an animal’s carcass, syn.: mishmash, hodgepodge) is used here to form a theoretical approach to the contemporary city. In terms of an affective urbanism, the word “hodgepodge” is preferred as something negative or discomforting. Attempting to design a “hodge-podge” is a controversial and acrobatic undertaking, and that is why it may describe and design an Athenian city,

where the complexity and heterogeneity of the built environment suggest a sustainable way of coexisting. The fragmental and spontaneous agglomeration of thoughts, notes, examples that takes place here, resembles the way we extract and collect information within the city. Thus, this thesis project is not far from its object of analysis, structurally speaking, -not far from becoming itself a hodgepodge of written language. Architect’s ship: perspective (digital collage over hand-drawn sketch)

ACADEMIC NTUA 2008 SUPERVISOR: PROF P. TOURNIKIOTIS M. MAVRIDOU RESEARCH BY TEXT TEXTS FOR EXHIBITION

Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος

ΠΡΟΛΕΓΟΜΕΝΑ. ΠΟΛΗ: ΟΔΗΓΙΕΣ ΧΡΗΣΕΩΣ

ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΜΕΝΑ

Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος

9. (κάτω κέντρο) Ο μονόλιθος της 2001: Οδύσσειας του Διαστήματος

ΠΟΛΗ : ΟΔΗΓΙΕΣ ΧΡΗΣΕΩΣ

ως δίαυλος επικοινωνίας μεταξύ του προϊστορικού και του σύγχρονου. Γλυπτό‐Μπιμπελό από Stanley Kubrick’ s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

ΠΟΛΗ : ΟΔΗΓΙΕΣ ΧΡΗΣΕΩΣ

«[…] Όσο περιπλεγµένη και να είναι η ιστορική κριτική στα αντικείµενα και στα φαινόµενα που αναλύει, πρέπει να γνωρίζει πώς να ισορροπεί στην κόψη του ξυραφιού, µεταξύ απόστασης και συµµετοχής. Εδώ βρίσκεται άλλωστε η «γόνιµη αβεβαιότητα» της ανάλυσης, η προσωρινότητα της, η ανάγκη της να επιστρέφει πάντα και εκ νέου στο υλικό που εξετάζεται και ταυτόχρονα στον εαυτό της […] Οι βεβαιότητες που παρουσιάζει η ιστορία διαβάζονται ως εκφράσεις µεταθέσεων: αυτές δεν είναι παρά προµαχώνες και φραγµοί που κρύβουν την πραγµατικότητα της ιστορικής γραφής. Αυτή η τελευταία ενσωµατώνει την αβεβαιότητα: Μια «αληθινή ιστορία» δεν είναι εκείνη που καλύπτεται µε αναντίρρητες «φιλολογικές αποδείξεις», αλλά εκείνη που αναγνωρίζει την αυθαιρεσία της, που αναγνωρίζεται ως «ανασφαλές οικοδόµηµα» […] Πρόκειται για µια ιστορία ως γενεαλογία που εναντιώνεται στην ιστορία ως παιδική επιθυµία «ανακάλυψης του δολοφόνου» (της ιστορίας των καταγωγών, των επιδράσεων και του δεδοµένου τέλους)» Tafuri M. (1977) Il progeCo storico, Casabella 429 σ. 17

6. Χειριστής μέσα σε μονοθέσιο υποβρύχιο τύπου «χελώνα» από τον εφευρέτη

Patriot David Bushnell. Κοννέκτικατ 1775

(πάνω δεξιά) Τομή και προβολή οπτικού δίσκου ανθρώπινου ματιού. Εκεί συμβαίνει η εγγραφή του γεγονότος λίγο πριν σταλεί ως μύνημα στο κέντρο του εγκεφάλου εν αναμονή του «σχολίου».

µιλάω για βίαιη ανατροπή,, αλλά για καινούρια θέαση, επειδή εκείνος που ανατρέπει βίαια τον εαυτό του είναι εκείνος που επιστρέφει πιο τροµαγµένος σ’ αυτόν» Τζιρτζιλάκης Γ. Παρ’ όλα αυτά, Πρόλογος στο Κοτιώνης Ζ. (2004) Η Τρέλα του Τόπου, Αρχιτεκτονική στο Ελληνικό Τοπίο εκδόσεις ΕΚΚΡΕΜΕΣ

8. «Δέν

10. (δεξιά) Το σχήμα του κύκλου σε μια διαχρονική και συνεχή εξερεύνηση. Και τα δύο είναι εκφράσεις του avant‐garde: «Σχήματα» που αναπαριστούν πραγματικότητες που δεν συμπεριλαμβάνει ο «οδηγός χρήσης» της εποχής. Το ερώτημα που τίθεται εδώ είναι αν αρκούμαστε σε μια απαραίτητη αναπαράσταση της πραγματικότητας, ή αναζητούμε ταυτόχρονα την διαχείρισή της, ‐έστω και με μια σειρά «μη αναπαραστατικών σκαριφημάτων». G. Galilei 16‐17ος αιώνας/ K. Malevich 1917

Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος Η ΑΝΑΜΕΤΡΗΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΟ «ΜΕΣΟ ΧΩΡΟ»

ο ίδιος ως μέρος μιας μουσουλμανικής εκκλησίας «εν ορόφω». Προστατεύει από την βία του δρόμου, από την βία του γείτονα, του αγνώστου. Το αθηναϊκό κτίσμα είναι αδιαφανές και αδιαπέραστο. Καμουφλάρει την λειτουργική ασυνέπεια και αντισυμβατική του χρήση με τέτοιους τοίχους που κοιτάνε διαμέσου της όψης στο μητροπολιτικό εξωτερικό. ‘Οψεις με μέτρο, κάναβο , ρυθμό, υλικότητα, χρώμα, όλα ιερά μέχρι της απόφασης του αντιθέτου από κοινού: Η νομοθεσία θέλει την όψη ολοκληρωμένη όπως σχεδιάστηκε. Στις εσωτερικές παρειές όμως τοίχων, τεντών και πετασμάτων υπάρχουν τα πολυπόθητα σημάδια ιδιοποίησης του χώρου. Ο τοίχος είναι «διπλής όψης» και αποτελεί κτισμένο όριο μεταξύ του δημόσιου και του ιδιωτικού. Ο αθηναϊκός τοίχος είναι μπατικός ή δρομικός, από οπτοπλινθοδομή ή μονομπλόκ. Προστατεύει από τους κλέφτες, από την σκόνη και τον θόρυβο, τον σεισμό. Ξεχωρίζει ιδιοκτησίες και απόψεις. Γίνεται το μέσο της αντιπαράθεσης και του συγκερασμού ταυτόχρονα. Ανάλογα με το πού βρίσκεται κανείς μπορεί να απομονώνεται ή να εκτίθεται στα γύρω. Γίνεται αποθήκη βίας η ψαθυρή δομή του. Ο μοιρασμένος τοίχος είναι ένα μέτρο διαφοράς με τον «μέσο χώρο» και μέτρο αντίφασης με το κέλυφος. Είναι ένα ελάχιστο αστικό στοιχείο. Σύμφωνα με τον R. Venturi:

Η ΑΝΑΜΕΤΡΗΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΟ «ΜΕΣΟ ΧΩΡΟ»

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΗ. Η απορία για το «πού βρίσκεται κάτι» οδηγεί στην χαρτογράφηση ενός μέρους και στο πρώτο στάδιο μετατροπής του σε ένα τόπο. Ο χάρτης είναι ένα εργαλείο του πολιτισμού. Είναι μια γραπτή εξιστόρηση ενός περιβάλλοντος. Η ερώτηση λοιπόν για το πού βρίσκεται κάτι έχει διττή υπόσταση: Από τη μια αφορά στην αναζήτηση του «κάτι», του «οτιδήποτε», για την αντιμετώπιση του πιθανού άγχους ενός «αόριστου τοπίου». Από την άλλη, αφορά στην αναζήτηση για κάτι ήδη διατυπωμένο, θεμελιωμένο και Η ΜΟΙΡΑΣΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΤΟΙΧΟΥ. Ο τοίχος είναι ένα θεμελιώδες στοιχείο για να περιλαμβάνει την δοκιμασία της ανακάλυψής ή της ανεύρεσης του, αν αυτό εκφράσουμε στον χώρο όρια που αφορούν στην καθημερινότητα μας. ‘Οταν έχει χαθεί. Η Ινδία είναι διατυπωμένη στο μυαλό του Κολόμβου. Ο χάρτης βλέπουμε ένα σχέδιο ή μια φωτογραφία ενός τοίχου από ψηλά, πόσο μάλλον ολοκληρώνεται με την επαλήθευση μερικών υπολογισμών1. όταν τον κουνάμε πέρα δώθε σε ένα αρχιτεκτονικό εργαστήρι, ξέρουμε και ελέγχουμε την οικοδομική και πολεοδομική υπόσταση του. Η πόλη όμως είναι «μυστήρια» και η επίγνωση των χώρων της αποσπασματική. Η πόλη Η ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΗ για το πού βρίσκεται η Αθήνα2, ‐μια «έννοια» παλιά και ξεκινάει όταν συμφωνήσουν 2 ή περισσότεροι άνθρωποι να μοιραστούν, ο διατηρητέα‐ καλύπτει και τα δύο σκέλη της προαναφερθείσας ερώτησης, και καθένας από μία παρειά έναν μονωμένο, κτιστό τοίχο. ‘Οταν μάλιστα η κάθε ενισχύεται και με την απορία «Πόσες είναι οι Αθήνες;» (Η πόλη ονομάζεται παρειά τελεί διαφορετικό σκοπό, εκεί ακριβώς συντελείται το «μυστήριο» της επίσημα «αι Αθήναι» τον 19ο αιώνα, 1. (πάνω) Ο χάρτης του Κολόμβου σχεδιάζεται αστικής συνύπαρξης. Ο τοίχος της πόλης εμποδίζει και υπερκαλύπτει. Είναι το 1490 από το εργαστήρι των Bartolomeo όπως στην αρχαία Ελλάδα, για να κομμάτι του ευκλείδειου κελύφους and Christopher Colombus στη Λισσαβώνα. Η καθιερωθεί ο Ενικός το ’70 με την 14. Δύο υπάλληλοι μοιράζονται τον ίδιο τοίχο χαρτογράφηση απέναντι στην εξερεύνηση. ή τσοφλιού, μέσα στο οποίο τρώμε, που κόβει στην μέση το ίδιο γραφείο. Από το επισημοποίηση της δημοτικής). Είναι κοιμόμαστε, ανατρέφουμε παιδιά, Brazil (1985) του Terry GIlliam μια αναζήτηση των ορίων της Αθήνας 2. Να ένα ερώτημα που διαρκεί: Κοτιώνης μέσα από το οποίο βλέπουμε το έξω. Ζ. και συνάμα μιας επιβεβαίωσης πως η (2006) Πες, Που είναι η Αθήνα, Εκδόσεις ΑΓΡΑ, Κτίζει το «μέσα» με την παρουσία Αθήνα Αθήνα που έχουμε στο μυαλό μας και του. Κολλητά του προσαρμόζουμε το στα σχέδια μας, βρίσκεται κάπου στο Και μια ευθεία απάντηση: «…να την λοιπόν κρεβάτι για εξοικονομήσουμε χώρο και η Αθήνα που εφεξής δεν είναι πια µέσα στην βασίλειο του πραγματικού. να έχουμε την πλάτη του σώματος μας Αθήνα» Derrida J. & Malabou C. (2004) να ακουμπάει κάπου. Από την άλλη του Counterpath: Traveling with Jacques Derrida, Stanford University Press, σελ. 119 μεριά μπορεί να βρίσκεται ο κουζινικός εξοπλισμός του άγνωστου γείτονα, ο χώρος υποδοχής ενός ιατρείου που αδειάζει μετά τις 7 ή διακοσμημένος

Ο ΧΑΡΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΙΧΝΙΔΙΟΥ

1. Ο ΧΑΡΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΙΧΝΙΔΙΟΥ

Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος

23 Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος

Η Αρχιτεκτονική του Συνονθυλεύµατος

CONTENTS 0. city: INSTRUCTIONS

MANUAL THE OPERATOR PRIMEVAL RETINA COPYRIGHT PASTICCIO HEADACHE

1. MAPPING THE GAME

QUESTION ANSWER LEAVING BEHIND THE DIFFICULT WHOLE THE SHELL THE TOWER NOT FEASIBLE ZIP‐A‐TONE SHRINKING

2. ANGER MANAGEMENT

IMAGE NARRATIVE MENTAL MAP FANTASY AS IT IS DOCUMENT ANGERMANAGEMENT

3. DEALING WITH THE AVERAGE SPACE

SAMPLE PORTRAI  ΠΟΡΤΡΑΙΤΟ LEVITATION TYPE FROM THE OUTWARDS NEBULA SHARING A WALL

4. CONGLOMERATION

EXPLOSION CANIBALISM BLURRINESS PANDEMONIUM THE BOOK «10» THE ORDER OF THINGS FRANKENSTEIN

5. THE THEORY OF THE ASSEMPLAGE

GROUND CONTROVERSIAL THE GREEK DREAM FASCINATION WITH THE PROPERTY POLY‐KATOIKIA HODGE‐PODGE STEPING AWAY MINIMUM IMPLODE THE ROBUST HYBRID INFORMATION AGONIZING SEARCH DILATE THE SHIP OF THE ARCHITECT

6. THE URBANIZATION OF A PROFFESION

ΑΠΑΝΤΑΧΟΥ ΑΠΩΝ URBANIZATION CADAVRE EXQUIS URBANITY TOWARDS A NON‐IDEAL CITY SELF‐CRITISIZING ANXIETY

the fairytale of the urban arc Bibliography

to deliberately be the subject of surveillance... (excerpt from the thesis project) It is not unlikely for our older versions of our generation -when grown up- to look for all these recordings and personal traces in The Grand Archive. A ληξιαρχείον (<register office) as a method of contemplating the past, following the same way in which older generations documented their passing, through the black n’ white photograph, film, analogue sound, manuscript, cave drawing and epic. Given this, it is not unlikely to utilize stored records of our surveillance and our ‘bureaucratic presence’ in the system, for personal use. The

“There are many differences between the Panopticon and the Panspectron being assembled at the NSA. Instead of positioning some human bodies around a central sensor, a multiplicity of sensors is deployed around all bodies: its antenna farms, spy satellites and cable-traffic intercepts feed into its computers all the information that can be gathered. This is then processed through a series of “filters” or key-word watch-lists. The Panspectron does not merely select certain bodies and certain (visual) data about them. Rather, it compiles information about all at the same time, using computers to select the segments of data relevant to its surveillance tasks.” Manuel de Landa, War in the Age of Intelligent Machines (New York: Swerve Editions, Zone Books, 1991) p.206

dreadful eye of the Big Brother would not serve as a symbol of oppression and suppression,

but rather like an optic nerve that stores the collective memory. The satellite orthophotographic surveillance that features in Hollywood conspiracy movies (Enemy of the State, 1998) and follows the protagonist in real-time, not knowing where to hide, would be an inventory of the person’s life -a proof of its existence. I am documented, therefore I exist. The reconciliation with the recording apparatuses of the city turns the fear of a possible voyeurism and a privacy infringement, into a conscious exposure to the camera. Hence, the satellite doesn’t lock on the protagonist, but the protagonist himself seeks publicity in front of the lens.

The means of surveillance constantly augment their precision and capacity, while at the same time shrink their volume. From the first snapshot of a photographic camera, to the first short films and from there the technology of the cinema is extrapolated to a personal recording gadgetry. In regards to this abundance of the archival capacity, no framing is needed, no waiting and no selecting in dark rooms; the aperture stays constantly wide open, just like in the modern documentary, fast-forwarding the actions of the animal. All of this technological evolution will sometime reach an non-reversible peak of plenitude: A 75 years long video archive (average life expectancy). In such a scenario, future generations would delve into their past by requesting a storage device with all the movements, transactions, registrations of their ancestors; an aging process captured.-

a Three BEDS

a T RIP a n d a C ALENDAR

GRAND PRIZE: Space competition KOREA, 2008 EXHIBITION DESIGN 2009, ATHENS RESEARCH by project and text

where and how I live

I designed a house with three beds in it.

came up with can be perceived as the blueprints

There’s nothing new here; a home comprising

of the contemporary house. The design focuses

three existing houses located in three cities

on a meticulous planning of the annual calendar,

across Europe. My house is an aggregation

prearranging everything so as to function like

of objects, machines, documents and surfaces

a single edifice. Supposing that I’m in my

that revolve around a bed. The body adjusts its

hometown with my family, in order to climb

habits according to the constant reoccurrence

up to the third floor of this villa analoga I‘ll need

of sleep: the to-and-fros in the bedroom. The

approximately one and a half hours. In order

house is a mould for everydayness. It generates

to reach the attic I’ll need a day on the train. By

a geography of habits, customs and repetitive

domesticating the trip you may come up with a

actions. All of these construct the certainty of the

house that you don’t ever exit. Endless interior.-

daily life; the routine. I created diagrams of my personal corporeal, psychological occurrences and periodical encounters: A statistical portrait of my life. My house is a trip. All of my belongings are scattered over Europe. My archive, my workspace, my family are distributed over different time-zones. There was a time when the city ended just before the door rug. Nowadays, you have to travel to feel like home. It seems that the house of the 21st century resembles a diagram that evolves through the axis of time. The inhabitation has a velocity of its own.

My calendar is my house. We tend to design our own biography -our own lifestyle- and we do that by dividing life into periods, cycles and epochs. Our civilization knows how to operate in a consensual calendrical time. I used this device of measuring time and cataloguing activities as a manifestation of the habitat. The calendars I

a b c

attic house

London City me sister dad mother aunt friend uncle

51°30′N 0°07′E work academia apartment

Athens City 37°58′N 23°43′E archive books univeristy atelier sister pc two storey suburban house

Loutraki City 37°5 8′N 22°58′E family garden sea pet

INFRASTRUCTURE HOLDING THE HOUSE TOGETHER

CALENDAR AS A TOOL FOR INHABITATION

SUCCESSION OF THE SHAPE OF THE TERRITORY PER YEAR

ATHENS LOUTRAKI

LONDON

Theme Where, how do you live? (...)Dwellings that comprise physically solid and socially inflexible systems require people to live in conformity with them and still retain control. The division of rooms, which include the living room, the kitchen, and bedrooms, and which are used according to their functions, is almost a global phenomenon; the rooms fulfill exclusive functions respectively, and fail to offer flexibility by meeting new demands. (...) As modern architects in the early 20th Century reflected changing new lifestyles with proposals that transcended their era, rather than merely reflecting their times, we hope that applicants will create new alternatives for dwellings based on currently imaginable technological advancements and predictions of future social changes. written by Choi Moon-gyu, Jury

MANIFESTO We live in an era where novelty is experienced through strategy. Inherited with all the accumulated innovations of the modern era, it seems that instead of applying every single idea into a built form, design can also be seen as pure method, -an interdisciplinary ‘know how’; a protocol. THE ‘HOW’ Due to our inevitable singularity, we cannot literally live inside a web of material interchanges, such as the city. We cannot exist in multiple spaces at once, nor flow at the postmodern speed of telecommunications. But there is a way to dwell a system and this is through the programmatization of our lives and the various cycles that it includes. The question ‘Where do you live’ had been an identity signifier for the pre-global cosmos. The location of your house used to determine your language, your culture,

the color of your skin and sometimes even your own destiny. After all, we are the results of the geography we inhabit. The fall of the locale can be traced back to the forming of the first European urban agglomerations. The trip to the city in search for work, knowledge or wealth, deteriorates the need for an origin or a place of birth; nobody cares. This venture between the city’s walls had to do with the loosing of oneself inside a promiscuous open space of opportunity, where the body and mind used its sensors to fit in or survive; to take advantage of its very anonymity. The question ‘Where do you live’ no longer seeks for a location, a node or an object as an answer. The Cartesian coordinates, used for measuring or indicating something on the ground, fail to interpret the qualitative differences amongst lifestyles. The ‘How you live’ transcends the ‘Where’. It is more like a geography of places that we inhabit rather than a specific spot on the spacial-temporal cosmos.

We have to look out of the domestic box in order to

DOMESTICATION OF INVENTIONS,

discover the shape, the identity and the boundar-

OBJECTS, ROOMS The articulation of

ies of the contemporary territory. Compartmen-

what we call home has been evolved around the

talize the world, divide space into rooms and isles

bed, the very core of the territory. It structures a

and connect them using the urban infrastructure.

schedule of bodily, psychological, cognitive and

Invent your “How+Where culture”:

social functions and expands to connect with other houses and the demanding environment

THE END OF NOMADISM What is a

itself. It is at the same time, an archival deposi-

house if not an aggregation of objects, machines,

tory and a sensory apparatus for perceiving the

documents, actions, surfaces that revolve around

world. Every new object of desire or need

the bed -the primordial cave? These things and

transforms the very architecture of the domes-

their roles is what constructs the certainty and

tic building. Once you open your door to new

normality of everyday life: the greatest invention

objects and new problems, you start establishing

of urban civilization (Lefebvre 1991). The house

a series of

is a mould of everydayness. Sleeping acts as a

of the

geographically defined happening. While in the

habits; from the introduction first indoor bathroom the underground

unconscious faze of sleep, the bed is the only

bomb-shelter in

tool we have wrapped around or attached to our

the american

fragile bodies. It can always be seen as a suit, an

cold-war culture:

exoskeleton, a shelter for the sleeping body. Dur-

New domestic ap-

ing these hours of vulnerability, the fragile body

paratuses stimu-

seeks for protection, bridging the prehistoric

late new cycles

camp with the sci-fi cryonic chamber.

of maintenance, function, fueling

We begin to dwell by defining where to sleep.

and wiring. After

The ‘first bed’ signifies the establishment of

all, possession just

the habit; the measurement of life to cycles

like function is

that revolve around a specific topology. The

based on repeti-

bed defines the territory and represents a point

tion.

of return, a constant destination. The first bed stands for the end of nomadism. It

INFRASTUCTURAL

is through these repetitions that we enforce the

HOUSE The capital of

automatization of the human body. And all these

the cities no longer stays within certain boundar-

automations deriving from the body and its envi-

ies (architectural or not) but scatters all over the

ronment add up to the routine -an underpinning

globe, taking advantage of the socio-economo-

for some elaborate cognitive actions. After all,

political heterogeneity. The global market

every achievement of the human corpus, no mat-

economy is based upon distances: measuring,

ter how complex or difficult, can be broken down

recording and shortening them.

to some interweaving habitual behaviors.

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EXHIBITION IN DESIGN 2009, ATHENS

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specific piece of land (that constituted everything

be a time where city ended just before the door

–a microcosm) is being dispersed, liquefying its

rug. Now, it is time to find a way to domes-

spacial practices in search for work, pleasure,

ticate the trip. The family emerges from the

knowledge, safety, living standards, wealth, food.

synchronization and crystallization of actions

Today you have to travel to feel like home. In

between separate bodies. All the rituals, the cel-

order to inhabit this vast, promiscuous space

ebrations, the commons serve as a backbone of

you have to let your body flow through its nervous

everyday life. They structure a kind of environ-

systems; get a hold of the potentiality of the infra-

ment of periodical encounters and interlinked

structure. During earlier times of rapid urbaniza-

activities.

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inside this ‘mass house’ called city. There used to

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THE FAMILY that used to be located on a

tion we needed networks, objects, systems to live

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AN ARCHEOLOGICAL TIMELINE OF THE HOUSE

CONSTRUCTING THE EVERYDAY LIFE In older days we needed enclosure to form a program. The architecture was a synthetic obstacle: an enclave, a citadel, a wall, a built territory. The Celebrations, rituals and traditional habits provided people with a method of measuring time and transforming space accordingly; an orientation through different lives and personalities. All of these had a great impact upon the very structure and nature of face-to-face interactions. The traditional annual calendar has been a tool for inhabitation. Everydayness is formed in between the series of events and memorabilia. Among these nodes on the map, a dwelling emerges as a formless geography of habits, customs, happenings and actions. Inside this system anything can happen including the exception, the accident, the transgressional behavior. Nowadays, the habits burst out of the geographical limitations of the city, forming a kind of a meteorological phenomenon of human presence and pos-

25 Cuckoo house, a temporal dollhouse (cardboard and plastic parts on existing cuckoo clock)

sibility. Habitual movement and activity between the walls of the house. A house crowded by the blurring figure of the animated inhabitant. The house as a mould of everydayness: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;a space of to and fro which depends on the establishment of sites and means of returnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (Seigworth 2000). Promt: Design a culture that is stimulated by an HABITANALYSIS We usually familiarize

extended geography of dwelling. Begin from

ourselves with a specific calendar when we are

the program to the object; claim a culture as

young, and hold a mental picture of that map-

your own. Let us design not only a house as a

ping of the year with its compartmentalization to

set of walls and surfaces but begin the other way

months and days. The experience of space and

around. Design our own biography, topography,

the act of growing up inside it has something to

rhythmology; divide life into periods, cycles,

do with how you depict the periods of time.

epochs.

THE THE

CONCRETE

CIRCUS

THE

GHOST

‘Burn it every fifty years...’ Antonio Sant’ Elia

Competition Context Rupture, when considered an ‘acting’ force of change to something constant, an interruption occurs. When the rupted first appears as such, the ‘changed’ establishes its complete origin and end. Thus, the ‘pre-rupted’ has the same knowledge/meaning/importance to that what is (or will be) changed. If we reverse the spati al relation between the ‘changed’ and the ‘pre-rupted’ , the linearity of the action becoming thought is interrupted via metonymy by intermitted spaces in Time. This metonymy is what alerts change of its changing whilst remaining pure to the origin and end at all moments of rupting. In other words, if we ‘freeze frame’ a change through (and acting in) Time, what we comprehend is space in relation to what is and what will be. The metonymized object.

CIRCUS ITS

STRUCTURE

HONORABLE MENTION Live architectural competition, Canada 2007 ACADEMIC Communication and Space NTUA course, 2008 ARCHITEKTONES magazine POSTER

its intricate ontology with a construct, so as to metonymize its meaning even further. To help us denote its diachronous function, the circus can be ontologically defined as an intense field of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic entities; the elephant stands on two legs and humans walk on four. Originated in the ancient world, the Circus has a history of a ritualistic performance -mostly of a nomadic nature- and functioned as a proto-

he circus is a thing that strongly resists

theatre where the distance between human and

definition. Since the very depths of its

animal nature was under examination. Since

etymological roots, it has been a signifier for an

the performances were held in the open, its

abstract animate vitality, later to incorporate

architectural typology remained open-ended and

“frenetic public activity” under its umbrellic

it was only for this circular space, suitable for the

term. In the following text I will try to link

interweaving movements of man and animal to give the birthmark of its etymological

The circus per place and time. Hand-drawing and collage

significance. The roman kirkos (from greek

a ubiquitous invisible force immanent to nature

κίρκος, κύκλος= circle, arena) retained the

itself. These cultures started using masks and

very basic organization of the performance,

other paraphernalia of camouflage to disguise

surrounded by a crowd, until the time that circus

the human form and came up with rituals and

intoxicated the nineteenth century american

initiation tests to mingle and re-establish the

public as a theatrical laboratory for the exotic,

bounds with nature’s laws, expressed in the form

the whimsical and the monstrous, unconsciously

of ‘spirits’. These beliefs cultivated a range of

continuing the ever-occurring theme of men,

metamorphoses, where dancing and mimicry

animals and the combination of those two on the

provided ways of becoming an animal.

stage, fighting against each other for their lives

Once one with nature, the circus, just like with

or collaborating in an interspecific choreography.

the history of ancient greek theatre, needed

This (factory of travesties) awkward show topped

no structures, since its unification with nature

by a tensed (taut) fabric has been located in

didn’t necessitate architecture as a landmark; no

the fridge of architectural typology since the

stronghold, no threshold whatsoever. Later on,

nomadic lifestyle of the performers and the

newly conceived dualities gave rise to apparent

circus, have not being accepted as a valid form

architectures, and consequently to (frontiers)

of entertainment so as to be included in the

divisions between nature and civilization, man

spectrum of the urban architecture, it took the

and animal. Walls, hedges, embankments, prisons

form of a caravan on wheels traveling from town

carefully started to crystallize an interiority. That

to town to feed the curiosity of the agitated public

what stays in and that what is left out. The

and learn from its peculiar taste. From excavating relics, a transient stage of civilization was manifested in fables, epics and other primordial records of an allegedly collective unconscious, a time often described as “Distant Time” or “Dream Time” where, according to several animistic religious beliefs, animals were able to take human form. According to folklorists such as Charles L. Edwards, these ideas were evolved out of a memory of a previous evolutionary stage of the human species: ‘nonverbal fables’ of apes passing on to humans. Such a residue of our anthropological past can be also linked to Indian spirits and proto-gods of greek antiquity such as Dionysos, where the divine (closely related with) and inherent to the physical world and its phenomena refused to take an anthropomorphic form and remained

rest remained in the fringe of non-materiality.

modern culture capturing our imagination

A specter hovering above and across, refusing

and nurturing our childhood, included in the

to take a form. Hidden in the woods. A place

machinic circus of Disneyland.

where mythic assemblages of human and animal

* * * * *

proliferated. And while these combinations once

The attempt to design a Concrete Circus only to

constituted a way to praise nature, in the middle

be demolished after the end of the performance

ages they represented an incarnation of the

-except from forming a paradox- introduces an

demonic.

architecture that uses building and demolition as parts of the same show. In such a way, the

The circus has been served as a factory of

ephemeral erection, its packing into the trailers

monsters. The ‘elephant man’ was one of them.

and its perpetual state of traveling are being

The traveling circus fueled people’s unconscious

substituted by building materials and detonation

and haunted their dreams. The circus in Carlo

mechanisms. The once dispersed spaces now

Collodi’s famous classic novel The adventures of

form a saturated structure. The demolition of the

Pinocchio acted as a prison for the little boy’s

circus’ monolith would be the culmination of the

soul, much like the soul in Boudist beliefs is

show. The best directors, the most well-trained

trapped into different animal vessels on its way to

acrobats and capable magicians would be invited

nirvana. A ‘circus’ was enclosed into the Egyptian

pyramid, and a circus was manifested in the technique of a chinese monk mimicking the animal with his martial art. Overall the circus can be described as a theatre of reciprocal corporealities and a factory of organic assemblages. And these exact properties of this wondrous cultural artifact have been inherited to our

INFRASTRUCTURE HOLDING THE HOUSE TOGETHER

SECTION OF THE BUILDING BEING DEMOLISHED

participate in this extraordinary event. In

the erosion of the term ‘circus’ -the rupture

such ways architecture could be used as the

that commences its metonymy- coincides with

paraphernalia of illusion, mischievous hoaxes

the demolition of the actual building. The

and the grotesque. Thus, the metonymy of an

continuous shift between a permanent built form

object is being studied through the process of the

and the circus as a fluid force of change tries to

construction of a Circus -signaling its arrival- and

imitate the arbitrariness of its nomadic past. It’s

its demolition -preceding its exodus. The abstract

recurring demolition acts as a continuous force

function of the circus is being metonymized

of change, keeping it outside the architectural

into continuous reincarnations of the Idea of

typological establishment. The word circus

the circus per place and time. An architectural

originally describes a traveling company of

experiment is being conducted based on the

performers, and later on signifies a frenetic

intricate past that gave substance to the circus

pandemonium; the absence of order particularly.

in the first place. The eventful phenomenon of

A further metonymy takes place where an

the circus prevails over its fluid programmatic

antique signifier concerning a rounded arena also,

processes: Elephants imported, guest magicians

paradoxically enough, stands for a concrete

added, new technologies invented, new urban

rectangular monolith.

contexts explored: new symbols, new structural

We shall conclude with an addition to the

materials, new posters and circus trademarks

dictionary:

provided.-

circus

Once a circus of that kind gains substance,

noun ( pl. -cuses ) 1 a traveling company of acrobats, trained animals, and clowns that gives performances, typically in a large tent, in a series of different places : [as adj. ] a circus elephant. • (in ancient Rome) a rounded or oblong arena lined with tiers of seats, used for equestrian and other sports and games. • informal a group of people involved in a particular sport who travel around to compete against one another in a series of different places : the Formula One circus. • informal a public scene of frenetic and noisily intrusive activity : a media circus. 2 [in place names ] Brit. a rounded open space in a city where several streets converge : Piccadilly Circus. 3 informal Intricate construct only to be demolished after it serves its purpose in an extravagant and flamboyant way : It burned down just like a circus.

T H E D OM E S T I C ATION OF THE PRIS ON o r COMPETITION PRISONED. SOCIODESIGN FOUNDATION 2009 COLLABORATORS: PETROS PHOKAIDES RESEARCH BY PROJECT AND TEXT

chose to study the prison as

to mould a figure of the inmate as a creature

an analogy for the contextual

of an outer residual world. The surfaces of

aura of the present era, in the way lots of

the prison used to be intensely decorated with

past intellectuals chose to describe the prison

gothic scenes and mythical creatures. Similar

through the means of a structure that inscribes

monsters were engineered by the folklore during

the essence of the state, that which controls

the medieval ages and were the inhabitants of

the moral and legal framework of the whole.

the dangerous realm of the exterior of the city

Following this tradition of thought, we imagine

frontiers. Ravaged by beasts, anarchy, chaos or

the contemporary prison as a record of our

hell. The first of the architects that ever design

present situation -built or theoretical- waiting to

a prison inscribed the fears of the unknown, the

be retrieved from the sociologists of the future.

abnormal and the anomaly onto the prison walls.

A device for inspection and contemplation on

The intimidating stories which they embedded

future systems and social issues. We suppose

onto the facades were an attempt to internalize

that architects collaborate with sociologists

the horror of the outlandish space within a set

only indirectly through different historical

of walls. Let’s debate on Built matter instead of

strata. The sociologist continues the work of

plain fears.

the architect and vice-versa in a continuous act of cyphering and de-cyphering meaning in a

HOUSE If life nests within a house, the

built structure. Prison is at its core, a machine to

prison -this cumbersome artifact of our recent

prevent the escape, the breaking out. We came

western history- is probably inspired from

up with a story of a building that cannot yet

the shelter. In times where the chaos of the

be realized in its complete, intimidating form

unknown and the uncanniness of the not yet

but nevertheless haunts our

cartographed surrounds the established area of

collective imagination that

the city, the exile (ostracism) used to constitute

constantly collects symbols

a very significant punishment indeed. It’s very

only to be substituted by new

difficult -if not unfeasible- to distinguish the

ones. This monster has to be

historical moment in which the prison -in its

built in order to be destroyed.

present institutionalized form- along with the

It is crucial to use architecture

confinement and the captivity of the body that

as a way to crystallize our fears

its function suggests, took the form of a small

of an imminent concretization

replica of the house -a contemporary cell or

of the so far invisible “ether

a shell. The unearthly creature of Kafka’s The

of telecommunications”.

Burrow builds a house for itself that slowly and

The prison has the ability

gradually turns into his condemn, while it digs

T H E D E M O N I Z AT I O N O F T H E H O U S E deeper and deeper into its intricate labyrinth of

stretch out the concept of the confinement to two

tunnels. This blurs the distinction between the

absolute extremes: the ultimate shelter in contrast

safe sanctuous home and the hellish absurdity

with the absolute punishment.

of the jail. Unfortunately the mole-like creature

There were older times where interiority was

and silent narrator never finishes nor succeeds

-in absolute contrast with the present day- a

in securing its handcrafted hollowed-out house,

manifestation of freedom and security, and the

since its temporary escape fills his confined soul

exterior was so vast and unattainable that led

with anxiety and inertia and a psychosis with

to a proliferation of myths, related with the

domesticity. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an uncontrolled desire for

unknown territory of the woods surrounding the

confinement and solitude here. An urge for

medieval city walls. The outside was infested with

nesting. This beast is a digger of its own toxic

beasts and demons. The exile was an ultimate

home.

punishment. Later on, the human sacrifice

We should then watch carefully the way that the

serves as a metaphor of the vastness, emptiness

dystopian vision of G. Orwell gains entrance

of the desert. The control over the morality

into the house and destroys its holy seclusion

and behavior of the population was tooled up

through the introduction of a television set

with the death sentence. The gilotine and the

being able to transmit and receive -a predecessor

incineration takes place in a centre of a social

of our modern cybernetic human-machine

context, only to be seen by lots of people, and

interfaces. It renders the prison obsolete since it

imposes unforgettable lessons, a supposedly

is metonymized into a domesticated installation

cathartic exit of the social body and the ritualistic

that educes fear, control and punishment. In

detachment of the soul from its body. As opposed

a way, the cell and the room, similar in

to the prison confinement in practice, the

form and function are both

social body always practiced

bounded spaces, but

detachment of its

at the same

unwanted

time they

b c a

Cell/House/Surface

Infrastructural tissue

Logistics envelope

THE ANATOMY OF THE PRISON SILO

control room

prison cells

logistics shell

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components in any way possible -physical or

much like in the case of the bomb shelters in the

meta-physical.

cold war american culture. The machine here is still enslaved by the human and, in contrast with

EGG Our project concerns a space where an

the dystopian nightmare of the Matrix movies,

elaborate network of wiring, communications

the biological energy of the body doesn’t fuel

and logistics form a manifold of intensive,

the hungry, angry machine, but it’s wasted in

unprecedented connections. All of this

order to retrieve the necessary information. The

infrastructure that surrounds our modern way

information in the Matrix is used to nurture the

of life: tubes that transmit and receive, hold or

atrophic bodies whereas here, the information is

mobilize, crawl in the ostensibly impenetrable

the ultimate outcome of this experiment.

domesticities. Instead of an animated flux of

HORROR of the lack of a Big Brother: To

the everyday life, we designed a suffocating

deliberately be the subject of the surveillance.

overabundance of technology; a chilling

The outdated fear of a single face observing

uncanniness of the space behind the cameras.

us is slowly being substituted by the idea of a

The cell is sealed shut with tubes, wires and

surveillance assemblage that comprises every

cables. A multi-layered sensory apparatus

single urge for recording and classification that is

lodged in an egg structure; a cell in a shell.

internal to our very existential core.

We ‘re standing in front of a saturated surface

This type of space and body confinement

of informational absorbance, positioning the

arising in our era, is not governed by a single

inmates in the core of the prison. From that

and absolute centre of power and knowledge,

standpoint, the prisoner finds himself in the

not even in Foucault’s terms by multiple centres or

center of what used to be the Panopticon, but

structures of power, diffused throughout the social body.

instead of him looking towards a centralized eye-

As new types of surveillance come into existence;

gaze, he’s the observer and the observed at the

as the computational power increases and as new

same time.

modes of real-time monitoring, of registering

We locate the figure of the astronaut at the

and classification arise, the face of the infamous

centre of our blasphemy. This creature (nor

‘big brother’ still refuses to appear. Instead, you

machine nor human) operates within a stream of

have a demonization of an inorganic system that

information that travels through the wires of the

supports life. The urge for power and control is

control room. The astronaut is actually a team of

replaced by a rush/desire/drive for information.

swarming machines and groups collecting data.

The big brother’s gaze, dematerialized, stores our

The astronaut “sees” through the flight control’s

collective memory as an alert optic nerve. In this

statistical-mechanical vision. The astronaut

real-time recording, processed by an ‘invisible’

thinks with the guidance of an elaborate group

and complex set of devices and recording

of decision makers. Our ‘astronauts’ voyage

tools, that shrink and become more accurate at

through their everyday life using the same tools.

the same time, a vast amount of data is being

It looks like a voluntary underground exile, in the

aggregated.

heart of the informational flows, in favor of the

And because of the abundance of archival

absolute protection and captivation of the self,

capacity, the device’s ‘shutter’ is left open, just

like in a documentary film. Without hesitation, or

BODY The first architectural experiment:

delay, the animal’s life is framed in fast forward.

People voluntarily subject themselves to extreme

All this technological evolution will eventually

security technologies. In a new post-urban

reach a frontier. A movie file with 75 years

condition, living in the city is understood by

duration in average. In such a scenario, future

specific social groups as highly important and

generations will go back in their forefathers’

dangerous at the same time. Urban space

archives claiming a copy of all their records,

understood as the source of fear and anxiety,

logs, registers. It can be said that we’re already

the need for retreat, of voluntary exile in the

in search of a materiality of our memories. The

core of the city becomes necessary to construct

introduction of real time monitoring systems

a homogenous and distant environment. As

is accompanied by a continuous flux of data

in Kafka’s Castle- the fragile border between

that is being stored in the background, through

interior and exterior must be sustained by

numerous institutions and their operation;

all means, resulting to an acceleration rather

continually remodeling and archiving the

than a suspension of anxiety. Sound alarms

world and the human body. In this condition,

systems, surveillance and monitoring technology

the subject surrenders itself to a surveillance assemblage almost voluntarily; almost deliberately.

SOUL It had always been unfair -but still interesting- to manipulate the concept of the flesh as the prison of the soul; dualities that distinguish the material from the immaterial. The technology we exponentially deploy is able of attaining every little piece of information, that once added up to our own, unique identity. It slowly but steadily transforms flesh into pure information. This process of decorporealization that takes place inside the hospitals’ MRI and the military’ s identification gadgets breed a new generation of people that harvest this data for their own delirious need for a quantifiable soul. The dream of grasping a handful of data that represent a model -if not the human itself- is a persistent goal that has been camouflaged through different historical beliefs. The dream of the eternal memory of life. Data stands for our last hope for escape from our physical impoverishment. The prison as the observatory of the psyche: a laboratory being run by its own guinea pigs.

coupled with prison-like perimeter walls spread

radicalizes its tools and technology to propose

throughout the gated community and the houses.

a controlled environment to monitor its own

The human body submits itself to technology

space? A real time documentation of the way

of control, only to fortify its space and destroy

the body inhabits space, the way the body moves

its porous. While fear and the need of security

inside space, the frequency of its contact to

is domesticated, the house becomes the site of

architecture and the surfaces...A series of quality

architectural tests, aiming to create a new type of

controls, medical or psychological experiments

control environment and the seals to sustain it.

take place, rendering the subject a cosmonaut of

Architectureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s symbolic role of providing shelter

the everyday life. Rehabilitation programs are

and creating stable and ordered environments

substituted by the participation in the first real

gives rise to buildings insusceptible towards

architectural experiment. Technology can record

change. But what if architecture is ready to

the speed that architecture disintegrates under

sacrifice its benevolent purpose to society, to

the ravages of time. In that case, the surface that

submit to the crave for data, and institutionalize

records every possible interaction with the space

the first experiment.? What if architecture

is designed to be so sensitive and intelligentlike that every thing that happens during the day -small, irrelevant or unimportant- can be collected, evaluated or archived. All aspects of everyday life should then be catalogued and classified with the same intensity of a house being scrutinized after a domestic murder. The shell of an absolutely controlled environment, an introverted home hollowed out of the infrastructural tissue. This prison can be compared to an ultimate system -such as the ones raiding the scifi imagination- where the system -usually possessing a womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s voice of uncommon sophistication- calms and sustain the human body through time, preserving its life in cryogenic chambers. Recording every possible little detail or fluctuation in the bodily functions. A specter hovering above the white surfaces; ubiquitous, female voice and ear. A system in auto-pilot. Sections of the Prison (MRI scans, superimposed with plans of famous houses from L. Kahn, Philip Johnson, e.t.c.)

Bibliography/

references:

Hook, Derek; Vrdoljak, Michele (2002). Gated communities, heterotopia and a ‘rights’ of

Camus, A., & O’Brien, J. (1957). The fall. New

privilege: a ‘heterotopology’ of the South African

York: Knopf.

security-park [online]. London: LSE Research Online. Available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/

Kafka, F. (1954). The Burrow. New York: Knopf.

archive/952 Available in LSE Research Online: September 2007

Kwinter, S. (1996) Virtual City, or the Wiring an Waning of the World. Assemblage, No. 29. (Apr 1996): 86-101. Le Corbusier (1933) Air-Sound-Light (CIAM IV speech) (in Greek) , Tehnika Hronika (1993) Athens. Manuel de Landa (1991) War in the Age of Intelligent Machines New York: Swerve Editions. Wigley M. (2005) Leaks, C-Lab File, Volume magazine #3

The figure of the astronaut as a metaphor. image source: Life Magazine, jyxtaposed with the proposed prisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s top view.

FORD’s HOUSE and TAYLOR’s HOUSE

COMPETITION 2009 Collaborator: DIMITRA GELAGOTI

Towards a truly machinic house

t would be very difficult to enumerate all the changes that affected the archetype

of the home. The house ceased to be a sheer primeval box -where family perpetuates through multiples births and deaths-, as soon as the house became deterritorialized and dematerializedwith families moving to the city, looking for opportunities, in quest for their survival and away from their primordial land. The building sucks energy and materials from a city infested

by networks. In such ways the house becomes

turned over by a subliminal operating system,

a contraption in lieu of a destination. In such

still unaware of its true range and potential, its

times, the vision of a house functioning with

complexity broken down to personal, partial

the purity and rationalism of a machine is

everyday lives. The solid mechanic city is reduced

reversed: The machine is the house. The house

to the processes that set it in motion.

locates somewhere between the assembly of the

In these two reciprocal architectural projects, we

appliances that automatize and short-circuit

tried to apply automation for a series of domestic

the functions on the insides of the house. The

everyday functions. In the Ford’s house, referring

anthropomorphism of the machine has been

to the inventor of the assembly line, we enclose a

replaced with a mechano-morphism of the

conveyor belt on a walled perimeter of a house.

human. The image of the sensible city has been

In it, the storeroom -once regarded as secondary or residual space- is designed as a mechanical loop, revolving around the house’s open space, setting the domestic material archive in motion. In the second case, the Taylor’s house, -submitted for a greek competition for student housing-, comprises a series of bedrooms on ground level, toped by two other floors, used for the living room and kitchen spaces. A series of elevator mechanical systems is used as a common thread of the three slabs, extending each student’s

Fordâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s HOUSE. DOMESIC CONVEYOR BELT LOOP

space vertically. These elevators -one for every inhabitant- linking the bedroom with the living room, kitchen area and bathrooms, are used to move objects up and down the building, dividing a continuum of wall-free corridors to more private areas of elevating possessions. The project owes its name to Frederick W. Taylor, since his ideas in management and efficiency gave rise to the verticality of the skyscraper, a place of elevating energy, people, products and hierarchies. Both projects introduce the machine, derived from the history of industry, as a domestic element.-

Taylor’s HOUSE. DOMESTIC ELEVATOR SYSTEM

M OV I N G AT HENS

ACADEMIC SPECIAL TOPICS IN THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 8 NTUA COURSE 2008 UNBUILT EXHIBITION ATHENS 2008

a vision depository “This city is not satisfied with having been settled on so large an expanse of land, but it lifts up and carries over its head other cities of equal measure, one upon another.” Aelius Aristides’ Oration on Rome , c. 150 CE in A. Claridge, Rome: an Oxford archaeological guide to Rome (Oxford, 1998), 56.

The ‘Moving of Athens’ denotes a theoretical approach, through which a city is being examined not as a static, constant construct, but rather as an environment of perpetual

interchange of properties, people and crowds. This built exoskeleton of mankind -the stone, metallic, concrete city form- derives from mining and processing materials, but changes more quickly than the geography upon which it sits, -the land itself being the product of a collection of movements, materials, natural phenomena and gradual, accumulated stratifications-. Urban form has a velocity of its own. It covers distances and unfolds on the axis of time. It is not by chance, that the tools that have been developed to measure and monitor intricate natural phenomena, are applied in the contemporary urban space to quantify this fluidity of the city. Blumenfeld’s theory of the ‘tidal wave’, the city seen as a ‘Body without Organs’ in the theories of Manuel Delanda’s non-linear history mechanics and more. In a milieux this Emerging Utopias. (above) Extending the metro line to Salamis island (left) Plotting a city on the island (gouache, pencil and ink on satellite image)

Collage and Drawing on bird’s eye view of the former airport Hellenikon.

rich, the reality of the present state deforms

manifested in its citadels, but is reflected on

under the weight of the prediction of the future form.

the very fabric of its ingredients. Whether the

Contemplating the distant future serves to predict

substance of this fabric can be determined and

an imminent catastrophe, to evade damage

potentially altered to suit particular needs or

or to design Utopias. Our urban civilization

ideas is something that needs time to be answered

constantly improves the precision and range

and even more time to assess its dangers.

of this prognosis. It can be argued, that if the

Dangers that are concerned with the power of

historical record drove the processes of ‘truth-

determining or even designing our own destiny.

constructing’ in the urban world, following the

The reversal of the city has played a significant

18th century, the contemporary epoch listens to

role on setting the boundaries of urban space

the future, in lieu of the past. The retrospective

itself. The country that used to remain outside

analytical thinking is substituted by the sciences

the ‘city walls’ constituted a space on the mercy

of ‘Studying the Future’. We do not simply

of the dangers of the natural ecosystem, away

reflect on future, but we meticulously work on

from the safety of the civilized interiority. Later,

its realization/materialization (Future City,

it would be opposed to the derelict industrial

1987). Hence, it looks like the traces left by the

urban centers. Subsequently, we would refer to

evolving city, wane in front of the robust future

‘country’ for regions that are far from urban

whereabouts.

centers, but still close enough to depend on them.

In a city that is being probed like a

The consequences of the city’s reversals can be

‘meteorological phenomenon’, the locale isn’t

denoted on the postwar movements of greek

population, since it institutionalized a web of

Programmatic Emptying of the city

exchanges with the country, manifested in the

I imagine an act of ‘Moving Athens’ to the

periodical ‘exodus’, in search of non-urban areas

south -towards the empty space of the airport-

or in the form of return to the place of origin.

opening a correspondence with the center of the

The cultural desert -where no foundations of

city. A slow process of fragmenting the park to

civilization exist- was a plain of potentialities,

smaller, disperse public spaces in the dense city

useful for discerning the limits of the ‘built

fabric. Space complexes move away from their

civilization’; the verges of the locale. These kinds

origin, envisioning a sparser, less dense city. The

of reversals seem useful for defining a given

movement concerns program, population and

urbanity. The city today is not reducible to static

properties.

boundaries, like in the medieval times. We dwell

During this journey, while the land ownership

in ‘cities-environments’ that have gradually

is sustained, at least until it is re-inscribed on

substituted the medieval ‘city-object’. The term

the land, there’s time for contemplating Utopia.

‘urban reversal’ is something that has to be

A common phenomenon when you move your

coined in times where everything is a city.

belongings from one place to another; cases of

The derailment of an urban vision

gigantic translocation of crowds -of biblical

The collective bucolic vision for a metropolitan

origin or not-. A utopia on the move.

park, on the former airport of Hellenikon, Athens

depends on something like the aforementioned

A Vision depository

reversal, apparently far away from the city’s body.

The empty space of the Hellenikon airport

So far that the park promotes a theme: Tourism,

is provided for an aggregation of proposed

excursion, culture, amusement. A collection of

novelties. For issues concerning the city, but do

activities that happen together and in a sequence.

not necessarily taking place in it. An assemblage

A park suffocated in its own theme. We’re far

of data, possessions, intentions, proposals that

from the reversed event that we’re looking for,

proliferate in the city and move there -to the

that which manifests in an encased natural

void. A diverse utopia that emerges from the

ecosystem, or oppositely to a force-civilized

urban laboratory of the Athenian city. And, just

ecosystem, where case=container=city. With no

as in the case of depositories and archives, it

such limits, the park looks like an ecosystem gone

keeps a critical distance from the city’s reality.

wild.

Architecture as an exodus from Athens.

The zoo and the jungle as urban reversals, as a realized lavishness of a gargantuan metropolitan park. The tram and metro stations of the city emerge as points on a predetermined root of the safari. A town-planning for alternative food chains.

INSTALLATION WITH BRICKS. UNBUILT BYZANTINE MUSEUM ATHENS 2008

H OL LOWI N G OU T T HE B I J E N KO RF BUILDING

Do.co.mo.mo workshop

PUBLISHEDThe Challenge of Change, Dealing with the Legacy of the Modern Movement, Coolsingel Strip Rotterdam, NL 2nd PLACEMENT WORKSHOP TEAM: Patrick Ciccone, Tzafrir Fainholtz, Burak Haznedar, Karin Kunst, Zeren Onsel, Adam Stafiniak, Kim Eun Yong

We propose the surgical removal ot the majority of the floor slabs in the Bijenkorf, thus reducing the building to an outer shell and an inner courtyard. The solutionis to radically deprogramme any urban role for the building as a functional space in favour of the creation of an empty monument. This plan is the reductio ad absurdum of the conservation concept of the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;facadectomyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, as no new function will be introduced into the empty space. The empty space will expose the architecture, figuratively

and literally, and symbolically leave an acknowledged monument as an empty monument to itself. The problem of the Modern movement is presented to the City of Rotterdam through the contradiction of exterior integrity and interior absence.

mockup of the building, made with dutch bread and coffee sticks.

EMERGING MONUMENTAL PUBLIC SPACES

K E R A M E I KOS sq . urban folding

ACADEMIC ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO 8A NTUA 2006 Collaborator: ARISTOTELIS MARAGOS

The official cemetery of ancient Athens is located at the end of the famous pedestrian walkway around Acropolis and the ancient Agora. We attempted to re-invent a monumental space as a public surface, folding within itself and blurring the distinctions between different historical strata of the city. We wanted to design an everyday monument. We sacrificed the boundaries between the ancient and the contemporary to provide an urban public square open to new and unprec-

edented events. The Kerameikos archeological area merges with the everyday rhythms of the market. Ancient ruins next to buying and selling.

A CONTINUUM BETWEEN THE HISTORICAL STRATA

C U C KOO H OUSE 60 persons / 30 houses

ACADEMIC, OFFICE, PERSONALDESIGN 2009, ATHENS 2009 GALERA MAGAZINE 65

MASTER PLAN AND SECTION OF KERAMEIKOS SQUARE

DW E L L E R ON TH E ROO F

ACADEMIC URBAN DESIGN 9 NTUA 2008 UIA MAX MIX CITIES COMPETITION 2009 Collaborators: STAVROS MOUZAKITIS ARISTOTELIS MARAGOS

The project attempts to implant a new Athenian urbanity on the site of Perissos. It is part of a wider plan of re-urbanization of the area, as an aswer to the abandonment and dereliction of the industrial and housing zone of this part of Athens city. The walkable terraces of the apartment blocks constitute a continuous cityscape that interacts with the topology of the Attic landscape and folds into a dense spacial community. The project seeks a way of combining different

and often controversial uses. An assortment of different â&#x20AC;&#x153;urban ingredientsâ&#x20AC;? wrapped up together in a complicated manifold of public and private space. We understand the Urban MIX as a the physical result of the existing urban intensities nested into the proposed urban form. The form is or wishes to be the crystallization of the surrounded urbanity through architectural means. We understand the city as an assemblage of bodies and program together with the reciprocal evolution of both.

C U C KOO H OUSE 60 persons / 30 houses

DWELLER ON THE ROOF

The hybrid housing blocks surround a central pedestrian walk that extends to walkable terraces taking advantage of the slope angle of the area. The surrounding city is being unfolded into the site.

Section

Plan

Model office buildings and apartment blocks

ACADEMIC, OFFICE, PERSONALDESIGN 2009, ATHENS 2009 GALERA MAGAZINE 65

ATHENS, PERISSOS

A P O- T H E O S I S graphic

novel

Special _Plakton prize Comix Competition 2006

OZON MAGAZINE 47

Apotheosis (from Greek αποθεόω, apotheoō “to deify”, later the Italian gióvino, “to be made divine”[1]), refers to the exaltation of a subject to divine level.

JUK E BOTS graphic novel

3d prize Comix 02 competition 2007

A P O- D OM IS IS graphic novel

Michail Vlasopoulos was born in Loutraki, Greece in 1984. He earned his masters in Architecture-Engineering in 2009, from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, with a grade of 9,03/10,00. In his undergraduate years he had the opportunity to participate in various competitions in graphic design, graphic novels, architecture and urbanism. He is the GRAND prize winner of the 26th international Space Prize competition, juried by Ryue Nishizawa; his team in Do.co. mo.mo workshop NL 2008 was placed 2nd , and he received an honorable mention, being in the top six participants, in the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Liveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Architectural Competition in Calgary, Canada 2007, with Lebbeus Woods as a jury member. He currently works as a member and editor in the ARCHITEKTONES Journal of the Association of Greek Architects, while looking for an opportunity to pursue and academic carreer abroad.

http://spacecollective.org/mikaBoo http://concretecircus.blogspot.com http://archivalcircus.blogspot.com http://issuu.com/mikaboo