The 4th International Workshop in Theory and Sound "Waves", 26-28/08/2025 at the Paou Monastery, is co-organized by:
- The “Mobility Studies” Postgraduate Programme and the Social Anthropology Lab (Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology), University of Thessaly,
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The Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries, University of Thessaly,
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The Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly,
In collaboration with MOMus Experimental Centre for the Arts.
theoretical ↔ artistic workshop
The 2025 ISTW focuses on the topic of “waves”, exploring its analytical potential for the study of music and sound in the (Eastern) Mediterranean and across their transnational trajectories and resonances. The wave, a performative materiality enacting sound’s reproductions, transmissions, diffractions, dispersions, vibrations, interferences, velocities, echoes, periodicities, frequencies and oscillations.
The workshop is aligned with the sound festival organized by MOMus Experimental Centre for the Arts in January 2026. The festival also focuses on the topic of “wwwwavessss” and will host projects designed in the context of the IWTS workshop.
Invited speakers:
- Jessica Swanston Baker (University of Chicago)
- Gavin Williams (King’s College London)
- Jean Paul Thibaud (AAU Cresson, University Grenoble Alpes)
For more info please refer to the website and the programme.
The Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly is organizing a conference on contemporary challenges for architecture and urban space and invites students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, young graduates as well as PhD candidates to participate in a critical dialogue on the current issues of Greek cities and the potential of architecture to become a tool for questioning and empowerment, shaping new collective dynamics and responses to social needs.
Student Projects Final Presentations ΑΣ1512_ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN IV-VI IB: Collective Inhabitation Models: Architectures οf Care
Students presenting their projects:
MARIA AGIOPETRITI / ILIAS KALOGRIAS / KATERINA MELINA-KARAGIANNIDOU / EMILY KOUREMENOU/ MONIKA NIKOLAIDI / ELEUTHERIA NTENEKOU / GEORGIA PETRIDOU / MARINA PLARINOU / NIKOLETA SAMARA / GIANNIS SILITZOGLOU / ANTONIETTA STEFANI/ VASILIS STYLAS / DANAI TASIOPOULOU / MARIA TSERVENI / KONSTANTINA HATZIFOTIADOU / ASIMINA HRISTOFILOU
Commentary:
Dimitris Gourdoukis, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Arch., AUTh
Instructor:
Petros Phokaides, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Arch, UTh.
Proposals for a museum dedicated to Giorgio de Chirico are presented in an exhibition that opens at Art Space δ (Hatziargyri 4 - Iasonos) on June 12, 20:00.
The exhibition consists of selected student projects developed at the Department of Architecture as part of the course Architectural Composition III-V ΙB: THE ENIGMA OF THE CITY. The aim of the course was the design of the Giorgio de Chirico Museum in Volos, which will be a pole of attraction for visitors and a laboratory of cultural empowerment, providing at the same time a new architectural landmark for the city of Volos, and internalizing concepts, atmospheres and emotional moods that characterize the most creative period of de Chirico's painting.
The exhibition is curated by Kostas Manolidis and Faye Tzanetoulakou and will last until June 24.
See the poster of the exhibition here.
SPETSES 13-20 JULY
The Anargyrios Korgialenios School of Spetses (AKSS) and the Department of Architecture of the University of Patras are organizing the first Spetses Architecture Workshop SAW 2025 from 13/7 to 20/7 at the AKSS facilities in Spetses.
The Department of Architecture at the University of Thessaly (UTh) and the open research-action group CoHab Athens are organizing the symposium “Inhabiting Together: Practices and Imaginaries for a Collective Architecture.” The event features contributions from participant teams of the collaborative youth competition «CoHabiting Vacancies – Συν-κατοικώντας τα κενά» (CoHab Athens, 2024-2025), who will present their proposals for the reuse and transformation of vacant buildings—mainly belonging to public or non-profit organizations—into various forms of cooperative housing based on local and community needs. Drawing on the design experiments and alternative housing production scenarios developed through the competition, the symposium also aims to initiate broader discussions on contemporary housing policy in Greece. Short presentations by architects and researchers will lead into an open conversation, seeking to address critical questions such as:
- What are the prospects for addressing the deadlocks and crises in the housing sector, which are becoming increasingly severe and disproportionately impacting vulnerable social groups?
- What institutional, economic, and social challenges arise in adopting cooperative housing models in Greece, and what lessons can be learned from their long-standing implementation in other countries?
- How can architectural education, research, and practice contribute to shaping “realistic alternatives for access to affordable and quality housing, based on principles of self-organization, democracy, care, and environmental responsibility” (CoHab 2023)?
The symposium seeks to highlight the critical role of architecture in reflecting on and challenging dominant perceptions and models of housing in Greece. It focuses on the intersections between architectural theory and practice, academic research and education, local government, and grassroots initiatives. Its aim is to contribute to the shaping of alternative practices and imaginaries in which housing is understood not only as a social right, but also as a catalyst for the transformation of social relations; as a site for questioning gendered, class-based, spatial, and other social inequalities — and, at the same time, as a foundation for forging the conditions of collective life and architecture.
The symposium will take place in person and online on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at 16:00, in Room E, Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly and on MS Teams [link].
On Wednesday 28-5-2025 at 13:30, there will be a lecture by Neil Leach, architect and professor specialized in artificial intelligence titled "AI and the future of Architecture", as part of the course Computer Aided Design I taught by associate professor Ioanna Symeonidou
Neil Leach is an architect and professor and the author of over forty books, most recently addressing AI. He has taught at many of the leading schools of architecture in the world, including Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and currently directs the Doctor of Design program at Florida International University.
The lecture will take place at the amphitheater of the Department of Architecture
You can download the poster here.
Lecture by Kieran Gaya titled Myths and the Fabrication of National Identity in Architectural Context.
Thursday 22 May 2025 14:00-17:00, Room Γ
Short bio:
Kieran Gaya was born in Dublin, Ireland of Mauritian parents and spent his formative years in Asia, Africa, as well as Europe. After training as an architect in the USA, he went on to earn graduate degrees in Florence, Italy and in Zurich, Switzerland, and received his Ph.D. from the University College of Dublin, Ireland. Each thesis focused on the symbiotic cultural production of both local and international agents into a specific context and how the visual culture accessible in the urban fabric has transformed civic identities. His research focuses on the historical seasoning steeped into the modern language of architecture of post-colonial nations.
Guest lecture as part of the course: SPECIAL TOPICS IN THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE II: DECOLONISING ARCHITECTURE (2024-2025)
Instructor: P. Phokaides, Ass. Prof. Dept. of Arch, UTh.