Fani Kostourou

Space syntax is a significant theory and tool that describes buildings and cities as evolutionary processes, offering valuable support to architectural and urban design. However, theory and analytical research are different from the processes that characterise the generation of ideas in design practice. This chapter elaborates first, on the differences and intersections of analytical knowledge and intentional design, and second, on some projects charged with integrating space syntax analysis into the studio. Considering design as a propositional field manipulating elements and relations through intuition and logical order, we argue that classification forms a crucial concept in design thinking, serving as a tool for design generation and invention. We propose a ‘bisociative’ approach as the intellectual synthesis of relations in two domains, the ‘form-of-a-class’ and the ‘syntax-of-a-class’. The former refers to conceptual relations of similarity and difference in design, while the ...

Upon building completion, housing value starts diminishing over time. If it fails to fulfil stakeholders’ long-term needs, the building becomes obsolescent. While some housing schemes survive, others do not, being inflexible in changes over time. This paper explores physical adaptability as a design characteristic that other things being equal, adds to longterm viability in urban housing. It addresses the topic by investigating the adaptability of urban form and the impact of physical adaptations on space consumption and density in low-income mass residential developments. It studies urban form, buildings, plots and streets in and for themselves independent of their use. The objective is to understand how the three elements adapt over time and which morphological characteristics determine their capacity to adapt, a property that may contribute to greater socio-spatial sustainability in the built environment. Taking ‘Cite Ouvriere’ as an example –a working-class housing scheme in Mul...

As our cities age, a large number of spatial structures experience physical change. A better understanding of what this process may entail and the agents involved in it can extend the knowledge of practitioners, activists, and policy experts regarding the resilience of our domestic building stock and cities. Awan et al. (2013) explain that agents are not entirely free from societal and spatial constraints; instead, they are characterised by intent, shaped by their own visions and actions, and context, the spatial and social structures of which they are part and which they negotiate. This article discusses the intent and context of the agents involved in the construction and transformation of the Cité Ouvrière in Mulhouse in Eastern France from the mid-19th century to date. With 1,253 houses built for the workers of the Dollfus-Mieg et Compagnie (DMC) textile factory between 1853 and 1897, Cité Ouvrière was the largest and most successful employer-constructed housing scheme of its ti...

Dominique Rivoal, "The Shared Space of Hackney Marshes" (9:04). My aim as the filmmaker is to develop a somatically informed film-making practice, investigating how attending to soma while operating my camera, can further reveal aspects of relationality within the filmmaker and mover dyad and environment that contains us. // Daniel Portelli, "What the River Doesn't Say About Itself" (9:55). Along a river surrounded by branches and root systems of a mangrove forest, musicians drift on a boat performing music and engaging in eco-acoustical awareness, sensory activation, and perceptual openness. This video essay inquiries into the relationship between cinematic art and how we experience ecology. // Florian Goeschke, "Of Speeds and Slownesses: Co-composing with a Giant Snail" (6:18). The video essay reflects the process of co-composing with a giant snail. What began as a lecture in the context of an online conference for Artistic Research turned out to ...