This film was produced as part of the events commemorating the 50th anniversary since Le Corbusie... more This film was produced as part of the events commemorating the 50th anniversary since Le Corbusier’s passing and it reflects the education N.T.U.A. architecture students receive. Using audiovisual means, students are narrating their visit to Santorini from the 25th to the 28th of February 2016, in dialogue with the film created by Moholy-Nagy, which chronicles the voyage from Marseilles to Piraeus and the Cyclades at the time of the 4th C.I.A.M. (Congrès International d’ Architecture Moderne – International Congress of Modern Architecture) held in August 1933 at the National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.)
Proceedings International Conference Changing Cities IV, 2019
The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century... more The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century modern design paradigm has almost entirely replaced the traditional vernacular communities all over China and has radically changed the identity of the urban landscape. Chinese cities have grown inhuman in scale, unfriendly to the pedestrian, culturally and architecturally confusing and increasingly unpleasant to live in. As the expansion of the cities comes to a limit, awareness of the importance of preserving the cultural identity is growing in the PRC and many projects have gone forward in an attempt to preserve heritage. In 2015, the City Architectural and Planning Bureau of Ningbo has targeted over 2,000 historical buildings and has started working on creating the database of these buildings including building layouts and locations. A research team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, in collaboration with the Bureau, has been working on the site survey and follow-up evaluation of a total of 44 buildings in Qiu'ai Town in the southern area of Ningbo summarizing the site survey results of these historical buildings, including building type, structure and construction materials, repair status, historical and architectural values, ownership and present usage. Based on this material, this paper focuses on the case of the Hengjin Village and it discusses the housing typology, basic elements of urban space and its interstitial spaces; The concept of genius loci, including components such as geographical context, social-historical and economical context issues which, spatially combined, create an information agglomeration with influences and consequences on the space. The paper further discusses the concept of sustainability in the Chinese vernacular, the longstanding systems that people set in place for their families and society and the reflection in the building typologies, materials and construction, emerging issues of heritage and questions of identity, traditional versus modern, local-international and finally sustainability, models for decentralized / rural development, the concept of transformation versus conservation nostalgia.
This article claims that place as such can be irrelevant to locality. As architecture is an alche... more This article claims that place as such can be irrelevant to locality. As architecture is an alchemy turning trivial elements of construction into poetic entities of inhabitation the place caught in-between ought not be pragmatic. Rather, it is the idea of place as redefined by three contemporary architects-Abraham, Kuma and Couvelas-which elicits the poetic potential of architecture.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Cities IV, 2019
The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century... more The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century modern design paradigm has almost entirely replaced the traditional vernacular communities all over China and has radically changed the identity of the urban landscape. Chinese cities have grown inhuman in scale, unfriendly to the pedestrian, culturally and architecturally confusing and increasingly unpleasant to live in. As the expansion of the cities comes to a limit, awareness of the importance of preserving the cultural identity is growing in the PRC and many projects have gone forward in an attempt to preserve heritage. In 2015, the City Architectural and Planning Bureau of Ningbo has targeted over 2,000 historical buildings and has started working on creating the database of these buildings including building layouts and locations. A research team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, in collaboration with the Bureau, has been working on the site survey and follow-up evaluation of a total of 44 buildings in Qiu'ai Town in the southern area of Ningbo summarizing the site survey results of these historical buildings, including building type, structure and construction materials, repair status, historical and architectural values, ownership and present usage. Based on this material, this paper focuses on the case of the Hengjin Village and it discusses the housing typology, basic elements of urban space and its interstitial spaces; The concept of genius loci, including components such as geographical context, social-historical and economical context issues which, spatially combined, create an information agglomeration with influences and consequences on the space. The paper further discusses the concept of sustainability in the Chinese vernacular, the long-standing systems that people set in place for their families and society and the reflection in the building typologies, materials and construction, emerging issues of heritage and questions of identity, traditional versus modern, local-international and finally sustainability, models for decentralized / rural development, the concept of transformation versus conservation nostalgia.
Bauhaus and Greece The Idea of Synthesis in Art and Architecture, 2019
In the legacy of architectural education we inherited from the Bauhaus, the idea of creativity th... more In the legacy of architectural education we inherited from the Bauhaus, the idea of creativity through the use of formal experimentations giving priority to visual approaches is central. The paper is going to argue that the Bauhaus legacy has played a crucial role in producing new architectural forms in the recent history of design studio teaching. Bauhaus main educational approaches were carried over and implemented in American Universities in the 40ies by Gropius, Moholy Nagy and Albers. Yet, only within the Texas School of Architecture pedagogies of the ‘50ies does the Bauhaus legacy flourish and become part of the architectural studio teaching. By leaving the Texas architectural school, the main advocates of a formal transformational teaching approach disseminate it to other schools in the US and Europe. This can be clearly traced in several schools of architecture in the Anglo-Saxon world (i.e. the A.A., Cooper Union and the Bartlett), at the ETH in Europe as well as relevant publications in the 80ies. With the introduction of new technologies and the appearance of the paperless studio in the 90ies formal transformational rules evolve within a digital world.
This film was produced as part of the events commemorating the 50th anniversary since Le Corbusie... more This film was produced as part of the events commemorating the 50th anniversary since Le Corbusier’s passing and it reflects the education N.T.U.A. architecture students receive. Using audiovisual means, students are narrating their visit to Santorini from the 25th to the 28th of February 2016, in dialogue with the film created by Moholy-Nagy, which chronicles the voyage from Marseilles to Piraeus and the Cyclades at the time of the 4th C.I.A.M. (Congrès International d’ Architecture Moderne – International Congress of Modern Architecture) held in August 1933 at the National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A.)
Proceedings International Conference Changing Cities IV, 2019
The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century... more The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century modern design paradigm has almost entirely replaced the traditional vernacular communities all over China and has radically changed the identity of the urban landscape. Chinese cities have grown inhuman in scale, unfriendly to the pedestrian, culturally and architecturally confusing and increasingly unpleasant to live in. As the expansion of the cities comes to a limit, awareness of the importance of preserving the cultural identity is growing in the PRC and many projects have gone forward in an attempt to preserve heritage. In 2015, the City Architectural and Planning Bureau of Ningbo has targeted over 2,000 historical buildings and has started working on creating the database of these buildings including building layouts and locations. A research team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, in collaboration with the Bureau, has been working on the site survey and follow-up evaluation of a total of 44 buildings in Qiu'ai Town in the southern area of Ningbo summarizing the site survey results of these historical buildings, including building type, structure and construction materials, repair status, historical and architectural values, ownership and present usage. Based on this material, this paper focuses on the case of the Hengjin Village and it discusses the housing typology, basic elements of urban space and its interstitial spaces; The concept of genius loci, including components such as geographical context, social-historical and economical context issues which, spatially combined, create an information agglomeration with influences and consequences on the space. The paper further discusses the concept of sustainability in the Chinese vernacular, the longstanding systems that people set in place for their families and society and the reflection in the building typologies, materials and construction, emerging issues of heritage and questions of identity, traditional versus modern, local-international and finally sustainability, models for decentralized / rural development, the concept of transformation versus conservation nostalgia.
This article claims that place as such can be irrelevant to locality. As architecture is an alche... more This article claims that place as such can be irrelevant to locality. As architecture is an alchemy turning trivial elements of construction into poetic entities of inhabitation the place caught in-between ought not be pragmatic. Rather, it is the idea of place as redefined by three contemporary architects-Abraham, Kuma and Couvelas-which elicits the poetic potential of architecture.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Changing Cities IV, 2019
The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century... more The rapid and unprecedented urbanization of the Chinese cities according to the twentieth century modern design paradigm has almost entirely replaced the traditional vernacular communities all over China and has radically changed the identity of the urban landscape. Chinese cities have grown inhuman in scale, unfriendly to the pedestrian, culturally and architecturally confusing and increasingly unpleasant to live in. As the expansion of the cities comes to a limit, awareness of the importance of preserving the cultural identity is growing in the PRC and many projects have gone forward in an attempt to preserve heritage. In 2015, the City Architectural and Planning Bureau of Ningbo has targeted over 2,000 historical buildings and has started working on creating the database of these buildings including building layouts and locations. A research team from the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, in collaboration with the Bureau, has been working on the site survey and follow-up evaluation of a total of 44 buildings in Qiu'ai Town in the southern area of Ningbo summarizing the site survey results of these historical buildings, including building type, structure and construction materials, repair status, historical and architectural values, ownership and present usage. Based on this material, this paper focuses on the case of the Hengjin Village and it discusses the housing typology, basic elements of urban space and its interstitial spaces; The concept of genius loci, including components such as geographical context, social-historical and economical context issues which, spatially combined, create an information agglomeration with influences and consequences on the space. The paper further discusses the concept of sustainability in the Chinese vernacular, the long-standing systems that people set in place for their families and society and the reflection in the building typologies, materials and construction, emerging issues of heritage and questions of identity, traditional versus modern, local-international and finally sustainability, models for decentralized / rural development, the concept of transformation versus conservation nostalgia.
Bauhaus and Greece The Idea of Synthesis in Art and Architecture, 2019
In the legacy of architectural education we inherited from the Bauhaus, the idea of creativity th... more In the legacy of architectural education we inherited from the Bauhaus, the idea of creativity through the use of formal experimentations giving priority to visual approaches is central. The paper is going to argue that the Bauhaus legacy has played a crucial role in producing new architectural forms in the recent history of design studio teaching. Bauhaus main educational approaches were carried over and implemented in American Universities in the 40ies by Gropius, Moholy Nagy and Albers. Yet, only within the Texas School of Architecture pedagogies of the ‘50ies does the Bauhaus legacy flourish and become part of the architectural studio teaching. By leaving the Texas architectural school, the main advocates of a formal transformational teaching approach disseminate it to other schools in the US and Europe. This can be clearly traced in several schools of architecture in the Anglo-Saxon world (i.e. the A.A., Cooper Union and the Bartlett), at the ETH in Europe as well as relevant publications in the 80ies. With the introduction of new technologies and the appearance of the paperless studio in the 90ies formal transformational rules evolve within a digital world.
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