Xenia Stoumpou
National Technical University of Athens, NTUA School of Architecture, Graduate Student
*book in greek* / Athens, celebrated as containing the seeds of the ideal city, and more recently touted as a Mecca of creativity and resilience, is at the same time the worst capital of Western Europe, the dirtiest, most stressful and... more
*book in greek* /
Athens, celebrated as containing the seeds of the ideal city, and more recently touted as a Mecca of creativity and resilience, is at the same time the worst capital of Western Europe, the dirtiest, most stressful and less bearable place to live in. Questioning both sides of the extremes, the book rather reads Athens as a misprinted version of western city-making and -branding rationales. Seen as a fortunate misadventure, the misprint carries with it the radical potential to interrogate the original, dominant paradigm, while simultaneously departing from it. The book collects texts and projects that were the outcome of the 'ΣΟΔΑ' cooperative for diploma projects on Athens and the symposia it organized, articulating alternative forms of urbanity based on the mis-impressions of the city.
Contributors to the book include: P. Dragonas, G. Economides, D. Filippides, V. Ganiatsas, P. Issaias, D. Karidis, A. Kioupkiolis, L. Leontidou, T. Maloutas, T. Moutsopoulos, L. Papalambropoulos, Point Supreme Architects, S. Rozanis, S. Stavrides, N.-I. Terzoglou, G. Tzirtzilakis, G. Zachariades and Neiheiser/Argyros architects.
*ISBN: 978-960-9489-91-1*
Athens, celebrated as containing the seeds of the ideal city, and more recently touted as a Mecca of creativity and resilience, is at the same time the worst capital of Western Europe, the dirtiest, most stressful and less bearable place to live in. Questioning both sides of the extremes, the book rather reads Athens as a misprinted version of western city-making and -branding rationales. Seen as a fortunate misadventure, the misprint carries with it the radical potential to interrogate the original, dominant paradigm, while simultaneously departing from it. The book collects texts and projects that were the outcome of the 'ΣΟΔΑ' cooperative for diploma projects on Athens and the symposia it organized, articulating alternative forms of urbanity based on the mis-impressions of the city.
Contributors to the book include: P. Dragonas, G. Economides, D. Filippides, V. Ganiatsas, P. Issaias, D. Karidis, A. Kioupkiolis, L. Leontidou, T. Maloutas, T. Moutsopoulos, L. Papalambropoulos, Point Supreme Architects, S. Rozanis, S. Stavrides, N.-I. Terzoglou, G. Tzirtzilakis, G. Zachariades and Neiheiser/Argyros architects.
*ISBN: 978-960-9489-91-1*
Research Interests:
* ISBN: 978-618-5255-15-2 * Following recent changes to its management status, the port of Piraeus finds itself in transition, as increasing securitisation and narrative twists become evident, under the pretext of efficiency optimisation.... more
* ISBN: 978-618-5255-15-2 *
Following recent changes to its management status, the port of Piraeus finds itself in transition, as increasing securitisation and narrative twists become evident, under the pretext of efficiency optimisation. Being interested in the human experience of the harbour as a public space (and) transportation infrastructure, this paper focuses on the passenger port and the respective urban waterfront. A different perspective to approach the port is proposed, mapping both its structure mechanisms as an abstract infrastructural system and its attributes as an in-context cultural artefact. The research is conducted in two stages. During the first stage, a number of European ports are examined, producing comparative diagrams via satellite imagery; the emergence of specific patterns in terms of borders, buffer zones, terminal buildings and space structure, suggest the formulation of a dominant paradigm. In the second stage, having recognised the peculiarities of the Piraeus case, the work focuses on the passenger port. Conducting field work over a course of one year (2016-17), an extensive series of maps, diagrams, timelapses, and collages are produced to point to a certain latent potential of the port of Piraeus, evident in two axes: in the spatio-temporal response of the infrastructural space and in the port-city relations. Boundary porosity, flexibility of spatial adaption, agency, as well as informality appear as key concepts in both axes, while also being in a state of constant dialectical tension with precepts of efficiency. It is this play of balance that produces the fluid and diverse landscape of the port, distant from the prevailing understanding of hard infrastructures, but most importantly one that carries the potential of establishing a paradigm of its own. This counter-paradigm challenges the dominant understanding of infrastructures as detached spaces of overdetermined global protocols and brings out their balancing abilities in processes which include some degree of 'open-endedness' favouring the local, therefore proving their capability to function as active public spaces too.
Following recent changes to its management status, the port of Piraeus finds itself in transition, as increasing securitisation and narrative twists become evident, under the pretext of efficiency optimisation. Being interested in the human experience of the harbour as a public space (and) transportation infrastructure, this paper focuses on the passenger port and the respective urban waterfront. A different perspective to approach the port is proposed, mapping both its structure mechanisms as an abstract infrastructural system and its attributes as an in-context cultural artefact. The research is conducted in two stages. During the first stage, a number of European ports are examined, producing comparative diagrams via satellite imagery; the emergence of specific patterns in terms of borders, buffer zones, terminal buildings and space structure, suggest the formulation of a dominant paradigm. In the second stage, having recognised the peculiarities of the Piraeus case, the work focuses on the passenger port. Conducting field work over a course of one year (2016-17), an extensive series of maps, diagrams, timelapses, and collages are produced to point to a certain latent potential of the port of Piraeus, evident in two axes: in the spatio-temporal response of the infrastructural space and in the port-city relations. Boundary porosity, flexibility of spatial adaption, agency, as well as informality appear as key concepts in both axes, while also being in a state of constant dialectical tension with precepts of efficiency. It is this play of balance that produces the fluid and diverse landscape of the port, distant from the prevailing understanding of hard infrastructures, but most importantly one that carries the potential of establishing a paradigm of its own. This counter-paradigm challenges the dominant understanding of infrastructures as detached spaces of overdetermined global protocols and brings out their balancing abilities in processes which include some degree of 'open-endedness' favouring the local, therefore proving their capability to function as active public spaces too.