Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept th... more Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept though lays beyond the techniques: it’s a way of understanding space. The fundamental idea is that space is been perceived, understood and appreciated through the combinatorial practice of moving and seeing. This paper will explore how this fundamental idea has organized a design teaching approach. Contrary to the top down method of designing (from the concept to the form and to the program) we will explore a bottom up method (from the movement and the visibility to the boundaries the form and the program). The approach has been used to a design studio at the Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly. Movement in the urban context has been used as the main starting point. The city is an ideal case study which includes issues of familiarity and strangeness, a variety of programs and activities, focal points, landmarks, natural features, voids and densities, long views and short glances....
Squares raise an important design problem, that is, the relevance of landscaping as a parameter o... more Squares raise an important design problem, that is, the relevance of landscaping as a parameter of urban architecture. Among the physical means that architecture employs when designing a square are pavements, stairs, sculptures, kiosks, and fountains, which although seemingly weak, organize the usage and the intelligibility of the place. These physical features facilitate the gathering or the dispersal of people; they also create certain visual fields which include or exclude objects and users and contribute to the interpretation of the overall structure. In public space this interpretation has a twofold character: one which refers to the extent that certain qualities are registered in the collective memory and raises issues of civic identity; and another which is more spatially oriented and focuses on the formal or informal ways in which people use public place. Visual fields created by architectural choices play an important role in balancing global versus local identity of public...
Cities are a densely coded context for narratives of discovery and the recovery of experience. Th... more Cities are a densely coded context for narratives of discovery and the recovery of experience. They have a capacity to act as condensers of information and to integrate assimilations of behaviours, people, styles, typologies, forms, ideas. Cities are comprehended through spatial practices. Movement in the city is a major practice which enables us to accumulate and organize urban experiences. It creates spatial narratives containing memories and views, specific places, objects, beginnings and ends, distances, shadows, buildings or parts of them, encounters, signs and panoramas. Urban space becomes intelligible through sequences of movement. Its complexity, mystery, splendour, rhythm, are revealed and interrelated through the route of the urban dweller. Similarly to urban space, architectural space is perceived in terms of sequences and spatial practises. According to Jean Nouvel “To erect a building is to predict and seek effects of contrasts and linkage through which one passes...in...
Proceedings 12th International Space Syntax Symposium, 2019
Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept th... more Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept though lays beyond the techniques: it's a way of understanding space. The fundamental idea is that space is been perceived, understood and appreciated through the combinatorial practice of moving and seeing. This paper will explore how this fundamental idea has organized a design teaching approach. Contrary to the top down method of designing (from the concept to the form and to the program) we will explore a bottom up method (from the movement and the visibility to the boundaries the form and the program). The approach has been used to a design studio at the Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly. Movement in the urban context has been used as the main starting point. The city is an ideal case study which includes issues of familiarity and strangeness, a variety of programs and activities, focal points, landmarks, natural features, voids and densities, long views and short glances. Students have started mapping a route within the urban environment, then proceeded to analyze a museum building and finally they designed a new museum. Students have been pressed to use their step and their eye to become familiar with the notion of designed space as an intelligible system which shapes our movement, visibility and perception. They have learned to understand and appreciate architecture through movement via a succession of spaces with local character or of major importance. They understood that architecture produces complex structures which are justified not as unique objects but during the process of inhabitation. Finally, they have been taught a design process which does not limit itself to morphological experimentation or superficial projects.
Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept th... more Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept though lays beyond the techniques: it’s a way of understanding space. The fundamental idea is that space is been perceived, understood and appreciated through the combinatorial practice of moving and seeing. This paper will explore how this fundamental idea has organized a design teaching approach. Contrary to the top down method of designing (from the concept to the form and to the program) we will explore a bottom up method (from the movement and the visibility to the boundaries the form and the program). The approach has been used to a design studio at the Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly. Movement in the urban context has been used as the main starting point. The city is an ideal case study which includes issues of familiarity and strangeness, a variety of programs and activities, focal points, landmarks, natural features, voids and densities, long views and short glances....
Squares raise an important design problem, that is, the relevance of landscaping as a parameter o... more Squares raise an important design problem, that is, the relevance of landscaping as a parameter of urban architecture. Among the physical means that architecture employs when designing a square are pavements, stairs, sculptures, kiosks, and fountains, which although seemingly weak, organize the usage and the intelligibility of the place. These physical features facilitate the gathering or the dispersal of people; they also create certain visual fields which include or exclude objects and users and contribute to the interpretation of the overall structure. In public space this interpretation has a twofold character: one which refers to the extent that certain qualities are registered in the collective memory and raises issues of civic identity; and another which is more spatially oriented and focuses on the formal or informal ways in which people use public place. Visual fields created by architectural choices play an important role in balancing global versus local identity of public...
Cities are a densely coded context for narratives of discovery and the recovery of experience. Th... more Cities are a densely coded context for narratives of discovery and the recovery of experience. They have a capacity to act as condensers of information and to integrate assimilations of behaviours, people, styles, typologies, forms, ideas. Cities are comprehended through spatial practices. Movement in the city is a major practice which enables us to accumulate and organize urban experiences. It creates spatial narratives containing memories and views, specific places, objects, beginnings and ends, distances, shadows, buildings or parts of them, encounters, signs and panoramas. Urban space becomes intelligible through sequences of movement. Its complexity, mystery, splendour, rhythm, are revealed and interrelated through the route of the urban dweller. Similarly to urban space, architectural space is perceived in terms of sequences and spatial practises. According to Jean Nouvel “To erect a building is to predict and seek effects of contrasts and linkage through which one passes...in...
Proceedings 12th International Space Syntax Symposium, 2019
Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept th... more Space Syntax has often been associated with techniques and computer methods. Its basic concept though lays beyond the techniques: it's a way of understanding space. The fundamental idea is that space is been perceived, understood and appreciated through the combinatorial practice of moving and seeing. This paper will explore how this fundamental idea has organized a design teaching approach. Contrary to the top down method of designing (from the concept to the form and to the program) we will explore a bottom up method (from the movement and the visibility to the boundaries the form and the program). The approach has been used to a design studio at the Dept. of Architecture, University of Thessaly. Movement in the urban context has been used as the main starting point. The city is an ideal case study which includes issues of familiarity and strangeness, a variety of programs and activities, focal points, landmarks, natural features, voids and densities, long views and short glances. Students have started mapping a route within the urban environment, then proceeded to analyze a museum building and finally they designed a new museum. Students have been pressed to use their step and their eye to become familiar with the notion of designed space as an intelligible system which shapes our movement, visibility and perception. They have learned to understand and appreciate architecture through movement via a succession of spaces with local character or of major importance. They understood that architecture produces complex structures which are justified not as unique objects but during the process of inhabitation. Finally, they have been taught a design process which does not limit itself to morphological experimentation or superficial projects.
Uploads