Department of Architectural Engineering

As the covid-19 pandemic stroke the humanity on March 2020, the Higher Education Institutions had to confront rapidly the emergency to readapt the organization of their courses in order to respond to those extenuating circumstances.An Emergency Remote Teaching Environment (ERTE) [1] [10] was created by the teaching team, in order to get as close as a 6 months’ pre-planned Intentional Online Teaching Environment (IOTE) module can get. To achieve the above, new technologies and features have been used for the online lectures; Social media were also used [7] in order to surpass the lack of the physical environment and face-to-face instruction.This study focuses on predicting the students’ satisfaction on the ERTE, by defining constructs and variables that are taken into consideration at an online survey of evaluating students’ satisfaction on IOTE. The students’ satisfaction rate is evaluated, focusing on the transition difficulties from a face-to face Teaching environment (FFTE) to an...

This Master Thesis aims to explore how architecture and transformative design can contribute to a more empowering and emancipating way of living for diverse urban communities under economic and/or social pressure. It’s essentially about co-existing within a crisis context, re-thinking and re-interpreting the current infrastructure of cities as an answer to the current status quo. It’s about seeking a way for architecture to act as a catalyst for inducing commoning practices and building community sense as an answer to the neoliberal modus operandi that is threatening vulnerable communities, alienating people and commodifying lives.
Architects, therefore, can play a pivotal role, both in kickstarting a discussion and pressing for changes in the ways development takes place. We are at a moment in history where neoliberalism shows clear signs of ineffectiveness, of “dying”. It is (also) up to us to contribute to how the future is going to be shaped, by assuming the role of the instigator, deny the authority that presumably accompanies the profession and re-imagine and re-interpret our surroundings, with those who need support most.
Greece, a country that currently serves as a forced economic and even social experiment, is a place where many potential answers to the “There is no alternative” neoliberal dogma have emerged. It is, therefore, an ideal field in which to explore the ways of inducing commoning practices, since the seed, is already there. The testbed for this exploration is a neighbourhood in central Athens known as “Prosfygika” to the Athenian people. “Prosfygika” means “refugee neighbourhood”, referring to the refugees that first resided there in the 1930’s. In 2018, this neighbourhood is home to new refugees, immigrants and homeless people, to activists and to descendants of the first refugees. Whether “legal” or “illegal” residents, tenants or squatters, everyone shares the same need and desire to stay and thrive in this neighbourhood.
Setting as a prerequisite that this diverse social structure should remain so, what will be looked further into and examined is the shapeless, unclaimed, non-place that surrounds the buildings. During this exploration, virtually no new elements will be introduced to the area, but, on the contrary, what is already there will be identified, evaluated, highlighted and framed within an organizational system that people may use however they see fit.
Commoning is a creative process oriented in the production and distribution and sharing of experiences and knowledge, as well as space itself, all shaped through collective action. What this thesis is aiming for, is to explore the lighting of the spark that can set the wheels of commoning in motion.

In line with EU Directives, European building portfolio owners are required to bring their stock to nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) standards by 2050. To fulfil this goal in a timely and cost-effective manner, they will need to have a comprehensive understanding of their buildings’ condition, as well as consistent information on viable energy and low-carbon technology measures. Currently, in Europe, there is a lack of knowledge of what energy efficiency measures are being implemented in residential buildings. It is also unknown what are the decision-making processes behind the selection of these measures. On this basis, the aim of this study is to shed light on (1) what energy efficiency measures are currently carried out across European building portfolio owners (BPOs), (2) how are these measures selected (i.e. decision-making processes and information sources), and (3) what data would be needed to foster the uptake of low carbon energy efficiency technologies. The applied metho...

The Master Thesis with the title "Integrating DGNB in the BIM process" was carried out in collaboration with the Sustainability Department of Rambøll and Green Building Council of Denmark. The research focused on the integration of LCA and BIM, rendering LCA as a decision-making tool throughout the design process. BIM-based LCA tools were investigated and compared and a practical framework for the conduction of LCA in the early stages of the design was developed. The framework was implemented in a case study provided by Rambøll.

This particular hypothetical/theoretical research constitutes a historical reading of the city of Thessaloniki, with the intention of discovering the factors that composed and entrenched the city's spatial image, up to the present day. The data collected, begins chronologically at the end of the 19th century, the last period of the city as part of the Ottoman empire and brings us to the 60s at which time, with the aid of the collected data, we clearly see the consistent/steady course of the structured environment. The information collected for this study, places the influence of the refugees that resulted from the destruction of Smyrna and the Sevres treaty, at the centre of all change. The refugees are thought of as multidimensional subjects, who through their actions and assertions within the social fabric, participate in the weaving of the city web as well as help shape it into its contemporary image. Thessaloniki, an important urban centre in it's day, with a location of great strategical importance and economically powerful, had to follow in the path of modernism brought on by changes on a global level and to overcome inner obstacles that hindered its course.
The existence of these barriers/obstacles depended on the enemies of the occasional ruling class, allowing the city's historical milestones to be easily identified. Thus, the shift from its "oriental" character towards a new "western" model of development begins, circa 1839 with the enactment of the Tanzimat statutes which bring on the refreshing spirit that dominated the Ottoman empire at that particular time. Following these changes, the continuous hostilities and the liberation of the city, by Greek troops in 1912, portend major alterations in the population in the beginning of the 20th century and gradually render the Greek inhabitants more powerful. The next great landmark in research is the devastation caused by the 1917 fire, with its aftermath irreparably etching/marking the city's civic web. This however, allowed the newly established Greek state the freedom as well as the barren land frame to attempt to enforce its beliefs and establish dominance, via appropriate design propositions through the Hebrard project.
Following the chronology we come to the disastrous for the Greek nation crusade of Asia Minor and the birth of the NeoTurkish nation both of which lead to the most violent, predestinated epilogue, in the coexistence of the two nations, the destruction of Asia Minor and the uncontrollable flood of refugees. A great number of those fleeing the country end up in Thessaloniki and attempt to integrate and converse on all aspects of everyday life, with the majority of the population, ruled by a very weak government, unwilling to seek solutions. These factors will shape the image of the city for the next few decades , as the newly emerging equilibrium, along with the refugees' desire for integration with the Greek people, lead to the complete transformation of the city on a social, economic and spatial level as a new era dawns on Thessaloniki.

The proposal highlights certain design strategies and a case study that can link the material urban space to digital emerging realms. The composite nature of urban spaces ?material/ digital- is understood as an opportunity to reconfigure public urban spaces without high-cost, difficult to apply interventions and, furthermore, to reactivate them by inserting dynamic, interactive and playful conditions that engage people and re-establish their relations to the cities. The structuring of coexisting and interconnected material and digital aspects in public urban spaces is proposed through the implementation of hybridization processes. Hybrid spaces can fascinate and provoke the public and especially younger people to get involved and interact with physical aspects of urban public spaces as well as digital representations or interpretations of those. Digital game?s design in urban public spaces can be comprehended as a tool that allows architects to understand and to configure hybrids of...

Dr. Polyxeni Mantzou, School of Architecture, Democritus University of Thrace, Library Building, 67100, Xanthi, pmantzou@arch.duth.gr Elisavet Mandoulidou, School of Architecture, Democritus University of Thrace, Roupel 2, 16233, Athens, emandoul@arch. ...

Walking, as an active, continuous, and embodied process of experiencing the urban environment, spans from an everyday activity to an urban design method. Re-reading the city and re-using it, in terms of a narrative kinesthetic experience, evokes social participation and shared experience – practices that have become very popular in the contemporary hybrid city. New technologies change the way that the urban space is perceived, experienced, and interpreted, as they link the material urban space to digital realms. This hybrid condition, where the physical and the digital aspects of the city are interconnected, forms, at the same time, an abstract and concrete place, where “here” and “there” fall into “now” and call for design strategies that create a single engaging reality. The paper suggests that “Walkability”, the new trend in urban design that transforms former industrial zones and harbors into leisure promenades and pedestrian zones, and promotes the exploration of the city witho...