© Retrieving Athens is an ongoing collaborative design research and education initiative at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras, Greece aiming to explore the possibility of a new housing paradigm for Athens’ Centre. Continuing investigations into the complexity of the Mediterranean city initiated during spring semester 2020-2021, © Retrieving Athens’ participants focus on the real-time design challenge of creatively reprogramming and reimagining a tomorrow for the one hundred and twenty seven government buildings that will become available once nine ministries and public agencies are relocated at the new ‘Government Park’ in Hymettus -Daphne and other locations across Attica.
Beyond AirBnB apartments, luxury suites, hotels, and hostels, speculative commercial and office spaces, Athens is more than ever in need of affordable housing for families and couples, young professionals, and the elderly, student housing, subsidised spaces for artists, small businesses, and start-ups. At the threshold of an international energy crisis and in the light of the increasing merging of living and working activities, how is design affected by working on a tabula plena of past architectures? What were the logistics of construction then - and what are the possibilities of deconstruction today that respond to the challenge of reinventing the built matter towards a viable, shared future? Key issues integral to rethinking the case study building - complex - urban block - neighbourhood – city are: accessibility, affordability and amenities for a wide range of needs, abilities and incomes; the relationship between individual and collective spaces, a sense of common; community building and active neighbourhood engagement; green design through the adaptation of nature-based solutions that promote climate resilient private and public, built and open spaces; circular economy; the connected place and the 15min city concepts through the provision of quality accessible services and urban infrastructure available to all.
During Fall Semesters 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, twenty four fourth and fifth year students at DoAUP, embarked upon a methodological mapping and recording of Athens and a selection of its public buildings, mapping, analysing, and critiquing public versus private architectures, the capital’s civic and open spaces through facts. Being committed to an open ended, non-standardised approach, the response for each context and building unfolds as a highly specific and unique strategy -an act- for intervention activating the site’s potential as an ‘urban mine’* for reinvention. The design strategies are innovative, bold, and provocative, challenging assumptions, informing public policy and decision making, expanding common understanding.
Beyond AirBnB apartments, luxury suites, hotels, and hostels, speculative commercial and office spaces, Athens is more than ever in need of affordable housing for families and couples, young professionals, and the elderly, student housing, subsidised spaces for artists, small businesses, and start-ups. At the threshold of an international energy crisis and in the light of the increasing merging of living and working activities, how is design affected by working on a tabula plena of past architectures? What were the logistics of construction then - and what are the possibilities of deconstruction today that respond to the challenge of reinventing the built matter towards a viable, shared future? Key issues integral to rethinking the case study building - complex - urban block - neighbourhood – city are: accessibility, affordability and amenities for a wide range of needs, abilities and incomes; the relationship between individual and collective spaces, a sense of common; community building and active neighbourhood engagement; green design through the adaptation of nature-based solutions that promote climate resilient private and public, built and open spaces; circular economy; the connected place and the 15min city concepts through the provision of quality accessible services and urban infrastructure available to all.
During Fall Semesters 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, twenty four fourth and fifth year students at DoAUP, embarked upon a methodological mapping and recording of Athens and a selection of its public buildings, mapping, analysing, and critiquing public versus private architectures, the capital’s civic and open spaces through facts. Being committed to an open ended, non-standardised approach, the response for each context and building unfolds as a highly specific and unique strategy -an act- for intervention activating the site’s potential as an ‘urban mine’* for reinvention. The design strategies are innovative, bold, and provocative, challenging assumptions, informing public policy and decision making, expanding common understanding.
© Retrieving Athens’ platform is an ongoing, live and open archival, interface, multimedia and networking tool for communicating approaches, recordings, ideas, and strategies. Visuals are created and employed to stimulate thoughtful explorations, encourage dialogue, and ultimately trigger action.
[February 2024]
Design Research Leader & Studio Instructor
Demetra Katsota, Professor DoAUP
Regular Critic
Constantinos Petrakos, Adjunct Lecturer DoAUP
Teaching Assistant
Kostis Terzidis, Diploma Student DoAUP
Platform Coordinators
Athina Xenouli & Kostis Terzidis, Diploma Students DoAUP
Athina Xenouli & Kostis Terzidis, Diploma Students DoAUP
DoAUP Research Team
Eva Arvanakou
Born in Corfu, GR. Eva likes to visualize her work through the method of collage. She likes sketching and painting in large scale and uses art as a way of expression.
Danae Assimakopoulou
Born in Athens, GR. Danae likes minimalist design and prefers to explain her ideas with concise line drawings, diagrams and collages. She believes that architecture is based on the flexibility and psychology of the user in its space.
Claire Athanassiou
Born in Patras, GR. She pays much attention to detail and she likes experimenting in different types of architectural expression. For her, teamwork and exchange of views is the most important way to get into some useful conclusions in any investigation. She is also carrying out some research on notions such us time and entropy, especially about how they influence architectural design.
Michael Chatzis
Born in Patras, GR. Michael likes to combine architecture with cinema. He likes clean writing of drawings and sketches and believes that the design of a building is drawn from within the user.
Athanasia Zoi Chronopoulou
Born in Athens, GR. Athanasia likes to research and document the existing city fabric with great detail. She leans towards adaptive reuse projects and communicates her ideas through diagrams and axonometrics.
Aspa Dimitrakopoulou
Born in Athens, GR. Aspa uses sketching as a form of documentation. She prefers to work in a methodical manner and pays attention to detail.
Selma Dervisefendic
Born in Orasje, BA. Selma is currently living and studying architecture in Vienna. Her passion for the arts extends to photography, sketching, and painting. Selma finds joy in product design experiments with various materials, their textures and qualities.
Nefeli Panagiota Drongiti
Born in Athens, GR. Nefeli is passionate in designing environments that combine functionality with aesthetic innovation. With a focus on sustainability, design philosophy revolves around encouraging a healthy coexistence between the building’s environment and its users.
Eirini Geronta
Born in Ioannina, GR. Eirini uses drawings as a way of expression and she likes to observe space and capture its aspects with detail and minimalism. She believes that the way we perceive and capture space changes with our psychology .
Athanasios Katsaris
Born in Athens, GR. Athanasios from an early age started accompanying his father in his job as an electrician during the weekends and summer holidays, where he learned to observe, and learn through that process. He is a person full of passion for his work and with the ability to easily learn a new subject.
Afroditi Korogiannou
Born in Athens, GR. Afroditi thinks of architecture as a space in which the visitor lives a different experience and creates a feeling for them. She likes to envision ideas and capture them in detailed drawings that create the corresponding atmosphere.
Georgina Kourmouzi
Born in Athens, GR. Georgina is in fond of minimalistic designs and usually expresses herself through sketches and linear designs ,associated with colours and textures. For her the combination of old and new is very intriguing and is an end goal that she aspires to accomplish.
Nicholas Malfas
Born in Athens, GR. Nikolas likes minimalism and the use of clean, linear shapes to create spaces and give them a simple, elegant character. Through the art of collages and renders he express the atmosphere of these spaces.
Maro Markopoulou
Born and raised in Athens, GR. Maro has an interest in projects that are close to the human everyday life, especially habitation wise. The creative process always starts using pencil and paper as the hand is an extension of the brain, and then it moves on to the digital world.
Andjela Obradovic
Born in Prijedor, BA Andjela is currently studying architecture in Vienna. Her preferred modes of expression revolve around paintings and collages, showcasing her artistic flair. Andjela finds pleasure in working with clay, displaying a hands-on and tactile approach to her creative pursuits.
Lampros Petsavas
Born in Agrinio, GR. His basic research apart from architecture is the art of music, social conditions, human relations and the combination of these. His key characteristics are empathy, humour and truth.
Athanassios-Euaggelos Prentzas
Born in Athens, GR. Thanos prefers to develop his idea in floor plans by working on rice paper, one on top of the other. By using collage he likes to give a sense of the atmosphere of the space he imagines.
Eleftheria Rodopoulou
Born in Patras, GR. Eleftheria perceives rchitecture as a means of cultural narration. She enjoys scribbling on a small sketchbook and gradually sizing up to evolve her ideas.
Chris Samaras
Born in Larissa, GR. Chris prefers to develop his ideas with the use of 3D models so that he can understand his projects in their entirety. In his free time, he likes to draw characters from manga and comics.
Ioli Stecker
Born in Athens, GR. Ioli is interested in ideas that can foresee the future and contribute to the community. Perspective sketches are one of the ways she uses to design inner spaces and atmospheres.
Kostis Terzidis
Born in Athens, GR. Architecture student at the University of Patras. Kostis prefers articulating his ideas through hand-drawn media. Additionally, he has a keen interest in sustainable practices in design and architecture.
Sonia Tsakni
Born in Karditsa, GR. Sonia always tries to approach design in a way that includes the understanding of the social issues at hand, especially when dealing with public space.
Iris Tsamourgeli
Born in Athens, GR. Iris prefers to express herself through linear design and tries to adopt innovative ideas in every project. She uses diagrams as a fundamental tool in the early experimental stage of the creation and enjoys the method of collages to make the idea graspable.
Parallel Initiatives
coastaldomains.upatras.gr
livestream.cargo.site
inlandtocoast.cargo.site
Contact
katsota@upatras.gr