PARTICIPANTS

P A R T N E R U N I V E R S I T I E S

UNIRC - Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria – ITALY
Professor:
Valerio Morabito
Students:
Federica Ciccone
Maria Giovanna Drago
Claudia Corapi
Luca Pitasi
Tany Vazzana
Francesco Nasso

IUAV - Università IUAV di Venezia/ University IUAV of Venice – ITALY
Professor:
Renato Bocchi
Assistant:
Venetia Nikitea
Students:
Gessica Marchesi
Giulia Vallese
Thomas Beillouin
Giulia Bonisoli
Nicola Albertin

Politecnico di Milano – ITALY
Professor:
Matteo Aimini
Students:
Beatrice Azzola
Fabrizio Introini
Luigi Grosso
Matteo Zorzi
Michele Gemmi

TUM - Technische Universität München / Technical University of Munich – GERMANY
Professor:
Weilacher Udo
Assistant:
Jonas Bellingrodt
Students:
Strauß Florian
Weinig Markus
Glander Irina
Didier Laurence
Perticari Katherine
Sonja Weber
Dayana Valentien

UMA Universidad de Málaga/University of Málaga - SPAIN
Professor:
Javier Boned Purkiss
Students:
Aránzazu Caravantes García
Jose Angel Guerrero Angulo
Mª Eugenia Muñoz Bandera
Miguel Ortega Dominguez
Martina Berti Recalde

Universidade Lusiada de Lisboa/Lisboa Lusiada University – PORTUGAL
Professor:
Bernardo d´Orey Manoel
Students:
Tiago Mendes Silva Azambuja Farinha
Raquel Filipa Ferraz Nunes
Inês Malvar Matos de Sá
Sara Manon Coutinho Gil da Silva
Ana de Azevedo Guedes Lebre

UPC Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya/Technical University of Catalonia – SPAIN
Professor:
Robert De Paauw
Students:
Emiliano Barneschi
Nawel Laroui
Katerina Dimadi
Sílvia Toldrà Gracia
Maria Concepción Ruiz Terradillos
Petrou Stefanos
Kampourakis Ilias

UTH - University of Thessaly - GREECE
Students:
Chalafti Myrsini
Chan Eleni
Cholevas Thomas
Dramba Elina
Eptaminitaki Lafina
Ioannidis Vasilis
Ioannou Archonti
Karouti Isavella-Dimitra
Kastrinakis Eleftherios
Kouri Ilektra - Ioulia
Koutsovasili Ioanna
Kyriopoulou Anastasia
Konstaki Sevasti
Mitsiou Lilia
Mimikou Eudokia
Mparou Lida
Ikonomou Katerina
Papadopoulou Christina
Papathanasopoulos Stefanos
Papargyri Vasiliki
Psomiadi Stauroula
Skiada Aliki
Strongioglou Androniki
Sofiadi Apostolia
Theodosopoulou – Giannetaki Melanthw – Eleni
Totsika Lamprini
Triantafyllou Dimitrios
Tsernos Alexandros-Paris
Veloudios Giorgos

I N V I T E D U N I V E R S I T I E S


ENA - Ecole Nationale d'Architecture/National University of Architecture of Rabat- MOROCCO
Professor:
Iman Meriem Benkirane
Students:
Bouachrine Salma
El Moaden Nada
Saadouni Sara
Benjelloun Soukayna
Aarab Houda
Arramaz Farah
Tayeb Mohamad

UNITN - Università degli Studi di Trento/University of Trento – ITALY
Professor:
Caludio Lamanna
Assistant:
Giovanna Salgarello
Students:
Sabina Maccabelli
Michele Reich
Paolo Callegari
Tulia Provenzani
Riccardo Giacomelli

University of Cyprus – CYPRUS
Professor:
Nadia Charalambous
Students:
Andrea Verni
Ioanna Savvidou
Marina Oratiou
Chrysanthli Konstantinou
Despina Parpa
Giorgos Kyriazis

UIA Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México - MEXICO
Students:
Ma. Fernanda Quintana Celorio
Luis Felipe Sánchez Romero
Edgar Omar González Pedro
Miguel Axel Gama Torres

Universidad Nacional de Cordoba/Nacional University of Cordoba – ARGENTINA
Professor:
Monica Liliana Bertolino
Students:
Lucia Barrado
Juan Augusto Labriola
Mauro Williner
Mariana Amelia Salas
Victoria Burgos

University of Pennsylvania - USA
Professors:
Lucinda Sanders David Gouverneur
Students:
Kim Davies
Anne Clark
Karen Lutsky
Martha Clifford
Zeng Chunlan
Jeff Alexander
Andy Dawson

V I S I T I N G P R O F E S S O R S

Pere Sala i Martì
Observatorio del Paisaje de Catalunya – SPAIN

Ozan Avcı
I.T.U. Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul – TURKEY

Vasilis Ierides
Frederick University – CYPRUS

Trikeri (Peninsula and Island) Area _ The Reinvigoration of the island _ Hedonistic pathways

Trikeri is a village of the prefecture of Magnesia. It is built on top of the most remote hill at the very end of the Magnesia peninsula, east of the entrance of the bay Pagasitikos . It is very close to the sea and is served by the port of Aghia Kyriaki , located just below the village. Its distance from Volos counts at about 81 km. Two line bus routes daily set up its connection to Volos city. According to the narratives Trikeri village was built by residents across the island (Old Trikeri) who moved there in order to refound their settlement collectively for the sake of pirates. The place where the village was selected to be constructed was the location where a third candle carryied from the seashore has been blown by the wind.

Old Trikeri (Panayia) is an island of Magnesia at the entrance of the bay Pagasitikos. It has an area of 2.5 sq. km. and a population (according to Census 2001) of 86 residents. Administratively it belongs to the community of Trikeri. Its highest point is at 109 meters of altitude. In the center of the island lies the monastery of the Virgin Annunciation, built in the 19th century. The island is covered by dense vegetation that consists mainly of olive groves, and resembles the vegetation of the opposite coast. Further north lies the small island Pithos . The Old Trikeri was a place of exile for women during the period of civil war. In order to access it one should arrive by road from Volos and then by boat from the facing port Alogoporos. The sea crossing lasts only 10-15 minutes. There is also the possibility to approach the island by sea directly from Volos which is distant at about 15 nautic miles. The island has no cars. One can go around it on foot in two and a half hours.

The village Trikeri with the island of Old Trikeri constitute a dipole.

Their topography: Trikeri peninsula and island form a hedonistic landscape either by the nudeness and the wilderness, the verticality and the openness of some peninsula slopes, either by the deeply peaceful atmosphere on the island and the inner bays of the peninsula.

Their inhabitants: with residents who often live in both sides and cross every day the distance separating them, the island and the village share a common human material. Often one part of a family lives in the village, and another on the island.

The central position of the peninsula and the island of Trikeri in the whole Aegea Sea area helped it to develop a significant naval force once maintaining a large merchant fleet, and today the second fishing fleet in the Greek area. The long and interesting history of the place has left significant traces on constructions that lie in the environment, but also traces on the vibrant history and the anthropology of the human life: the houses and their bourgeois furnishings high on the village, theTrikeri traditional local outfit that are is still worn by the women of the village on days of celebration, the embroidery that Angela Hatzimichalis had collected and depicted, the sheepfold on the slope that connects the village to Alogoporos, the shipyard at Agia Kyriaki and the local fishing boats all across the sea area, the shipwrecks inside the rich sea depths, the excellent seafood by the sea at the two little harbours (island and Agia Kyriaki), the olive groves vegetation and pheasants on the island, the church naval offerings, but also the ruins of structures built by the women in exile during the period of Greek civil war - Trikeri(S) form a network of specific locations that maintain or scrap the living memory.

Students will collect from the surrounding area sound or video or photographic material, sketches, pieces of vegetables or minerals or traces of the people who inhabit it. Lectures about recent history, local architecture and cultural anthropology will be delivered. On the basis of the collected material the students will be collectively redesignign the map of the area, adding to it their selected points of intervention-information in order to reform a network for visitors providing a comprehensive extended eco-museum for Trikeri area.

Boundaries of Xerias River – Seasonal Recuperation of the banks: The summer.

Rivers are marginal elements of the Greek urban condition. Due to minor investment in both the creation and maintenance of public programs related to the integration of important components of the environment into the economic and cultural life of the cities, rivers fall ‘out of sight’.

Their presence can be perceived only when extended areas are flooded due to heavy rain, while usually minor safety measures are taken, or when cases of marginalized social groups settle in the area becoming a nuisance for land owners and by extension for public opinion. At the same time, weather seasonal changes in Greece, differentiate the river microclimates and natural characteristics: from flooding raging entities to deserted voids.

This, we believe, is an important factor in destabilizing a constant and closer relationship between local population and rivers in terms of usage and leisure.

Taking a closer look, in the Xerias river case study, this formal instability in terms of seasonal weather and institutional neglect leaves a lot of space for other types of less regulated human activity, from Roma settlements and fishermen’s small docks to groups of cyclists and skateboard riders using the seasonally emptied river bed.

Our interest is to report this informal activity and its spatial traces. We believe that through the instances of a more spontaneous relation between people, their habits and the constantly changing environment of the river we can better direct an architectural study concerning the specific landscape and its cultural significance.

The objective is to program and design a network of versatile constructions based on the evidence of the present human activity in the area with the effort to deliver relations between this activity, the neighboring production zone and the city of Volos.

Since the period of study will be summer 2011, we are going to focus on the natural and cultural conditions taking place during the specific moment. For understanding the seasonal differences in the life by the river interviews of people or spatial traces can be evaluated.

Our stance is that due to the present situation in Greece, ambition is rather concentrated in understanding anew and intervening critically than using formal or programmatic manuals in landscape and architectural design to succeed breathtaking results; rather than geometrically oriented formal research we are interested in the study of the form of relations between human subjects, their customary habits and the natural context of the river Xerias.

Excavated landscapes

Bordering the sounds from the contemporary city of Volos and the nearby cement industrial area, the site expands as to cover the territory of the abandoned slope of quarry. Old and New relics constitute the topos of our design intervention.

The study area deeps inside the complex of meanings transferred by the different pieces which is made of: an old slope; traces of the unnamed ancient city from the 4th BC which came to light during the 60’s and buried again under the pressures for land demands; sounds from the urban context which lies behind and the industrial zone; historically evoked messages on the hill of Goritsa with its ancient wall, the remaining wells and the church on the top springing holy water; machine-gun nests from the second world war. The archaeology of this topos embeds fragments and moments which date back more than 2500 years. And maybe they don’t all signify the same value and importance but they are definitely the living witnesses of a rather -not so apparent- idiomorphic historical record and an inherited meaningful transcription of today.

From the modern road tunnel of Goritsa, the new infrastructure bridges all the material events and spatial episodes with the testimonies of a topos being temporarily abandoned. The view of the observer probes into these layers exploring the landscape from various distances, while the city looks, physically and essentially, away from site’s spatial properties and possibilities. Our design strategies become the tools to explore and inquire these possibilities, redefining and shaping the landscape. The scale of this redefinition is up to the degree we will let ourselves to become implicated in this complex.

Lake Karla

Former lake Karla, located at the southeast edge of the Thessaly plain, was unluckily drained in 1962 in order to provide new farming land and remove the expansive surrounding swamp. This land reclamation undertaking proved largely problematic. In fact, the old lake bed resulted in an extended stretch of poor quality land, unsuitable for cultivation and susceptible to floods. In addition the region's entire micro-climate was negatively affected, the underground water was severely decreased, wildlife vanished and a vigorous fishermen community in the surrounding villages was terminated.

In front of such failures, an ambitious project to restore lake Karla was set up in the 90s. A complex enterprise of building artificial embankments, pump-stations, irrigation canals and an extensive water management infrastructure only recently completed. The new reservoir covering an 38,5 km2 area is slowly replenished, re-establishing so the image and the aquatic life of the old lake.

Our involvement with the lake Karla’s changing condition will be launched with a field survey that will allow us to fully comprehend and evaluate the landscape components and qualities. Progressively, we’ll focus on a certain lakeside area and will proceed to a loose planning, including planting proposals, along with more specific small scale interventions. Our aim is to revitalise the dull and barren ground of the new lakeshores and fabricate an attractive setting where rural and recreational uses will merge.

Volos Waterfront _ Transformation of the coastal landscape

J. G. Ballard described the Mediterranean coast as 'a linear city... some 3,000 miles long and 300 metres wide'. In 'The Largest Theme Park in the World' this city is claimed at once both by its international temporal inhabitants, the tourists, and its local permanent residents. However, as the temporary sense of European euphoria is succeeded by a return to national isolationism and austerity, both the tourists and the locals return to their ordinary lives, leaving behind the desolated territory of an abandoned amusement park.

While the Ballard narrative, dating back to 1989, holds an uncanny foresight into the contemporary situation of many Mediterranean beach stretches, it is also a great simplification. The site in question is comprised by diverse parts. Extended areas freed by de-industrialization, old factories and warehouses some of which today house the School of Architecture that marks the beginning of the site at the Western outskirts of the city of Volos and extensive unused port facilities, are chained to a series of scarcely used recreation areas including an equestrian centre of manicured landscape and stretches of beach interrupted by a small natural preserve adjoining the Xerias temporal river mouth. The site also includes traces of commerce and industry: among them a working wholesale fish-market and a surviving traditional boatyard. The semi-circular coastal string culminates at the Pefkakia, a beautiful and derelict small peninsula that opposes the gridded urban complex of Volos as its natural counterpart, point of view to the city and point of reference from it.

The coastal park project brings forth the classic questions of urban dispersal and its relation to natural preservation and the global pressure of tourism opposed to isolated localities, however within a completely new framework. The monetary crisis marks the transition to a new era of Ballardian desolation, or what Rem Koolhaas calls a future of radical stasis. The workshop is to explore into this new spatio-economic territory and work out viable and realistic, yet insightful and visionary prospects for the area.