This exhibition presents the outcomes of the course Special Topics in Digital Fabrication, Processes and Technologies offered in the 9th semester of the Department of Architecture at the University of Thessaly. The exhibited work consists of nine group projects, each focused on the design and fabrication of a staircase at a 1:10 scale.
A central pedagogical and technical aim of the course was the exclusive use of digitally controlled fabrication machines for the development of the projects. The implementations employed 3D printing, laser cutting, and a robotic arm, in order to investigate the reciprocal relationship between form generation, fabrication logics, and machine constraints.
In addition to the physical outcomes, the exhibition includes video documentation of the fabrication processes. The presentation of this “backstage” material is considered an integral part of both the educational and design methodology. By foregrounding the sequential steps of production—ranging from the preparation of CAD/CAM files and the generation of G‑code to tool calibration and machine operation—the exhibition seeks to introduce a critical shift from architecture’s prevailing emphasis on the “image” toward a deeper understanding of the methods, decisions, and constraints that shape the final artefact. In this context, the disclosure of processes operates as a counterpoint to modes of presentation that frequently conceal essential issues of design and fabrication, redirecting attention from aesthetic impression to methodical, verifiable, and shareable knowledge.
Theoretical Framework — Anti‑Manifesto
Access to Tools = Access to Knowledge
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The non-neutrality of technology.
Fabrication machines co‑shape relations of power, knowledge, and access. Architecture must recognize the implications of these relations and reconfigure them toward social inclusion and equity. -
Design as an emancipatory act.
Direct engagement with fabrication tools—from G‑code and CAM to the milling bit and the printer nozzle—reveals how knowledge emerges through process and enables its transformation into a shared resource. -
Openness as a prerequisite for dissemination.
The availability of files, standards, and workflows (open files, open standards, open workflows) reduces barriers to access, strengthens learning communities, and expands the potential for creative inquiry. -
A bidirectional articulation of design and fabrication.
Digital fabrication machines do not merely execute predefined designs; they co‑constitute them by imposing constraints and offering new possibilities. Design must incorporate the logics of fabrication and convert them into creative agency. -
The staircase as object and symbol.
The staircase is approached as a structural, social, and symbolic element: it connects levels, communities, and bodies of knowledge. Its fabrication—even at a reduced scale—constitutes an act of social engineering, rendering the notion of access tangible, material, and open to negotiation.
Abdul-Halim Jabr
Oscar in the City: what to do with Tripoli's Modernist White Elephant?
26/2/26 17:00 MS Teams
February 24th 2026 14:00 Mezzanine
Department of Architecture
University of Thessaly
Pedion Areos, Volos
The conference is organized by the elective course South: Space and non hegemonic paradigms of knowledge.
Tutor: Iris Lykourioti
Response: Petros Fokaidis, Christos Kritikos, Ioanna Sotiriou
Student work and research has been developed through presentations and discussions during winter semester 2025-2026.
Student organizing/coordinating committee:
- Vagia Ananiadou
- Afroditi Angelopoulou
- Asimina Kalogirou
- Stavroula Lalioti
- Anthi Loupi
- Danae Tasiopoulou
- Kallia Theotoki
Click for the program and poster.
Blog with abstracts of essays written for the course ‘South: Space and non-hegemonic paradeigms of knowledge’
19/2/26 17:00 MSTeams
QueerrRing Ecologies
Performative approaches within and around bodies of water and waterscapes
BIP, Erasmus+ Programme
16-20.03.2026, Volos
The 3rd BIP, the concluding part of the QueerrRing Ecologies call, will be held from March 16-20, 2026 in Volos. Following the first two parts held in Bordeaux and Brussels in 2023 and 2025 respectively, the workshop explores a re-examination of the natural world and all its structures through queer ecologies. Acknowledging that we are living in a period which is characterized by the critical diminishment and loss of refugia, the stance and processes we engage along our creative trail during the workshop will follow bodies of water, protected woodland ecosystems; whilst approaching communities which have been in synergy with other-than-human entities.
Methodologies for approaching other than-human bodies of water shall entail experiential mapping through walking and in-situ performative processes. The methodology aims at bridging the gap between performance, craftwork, draft/map; through a plethora of different scales, to understand our body into space and time. Expected outcomes may comprise investigations of habitat and refugee, non-anthropocentric and de-colonizing approach towards cultures and the landscape they are/were inscribed within.
Deadline: 2026.02.15
DArch, UTh Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly
EBABX École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
ERG École de Ρecherche Graphique
DCCMI, UTh Department of Culture + Creative Media and Industries, University of Thessaly
SPACE AND POETICS 2025-26: BRIDGES
POP-UP EXHIBITION @ The Gallery Paddocks
In the course SPACE AND POETICS, the term poetics is understood as a theory of construction but also as the construction of text and voice; after all, text is space and creates space through articulations, voices, plots, sensations, experience, and dialogue. Specifically, connections are attempted between reading and writing, but also between reading and writing on the one hand and space and place on the other. The 'reading objects' in the exhibition function both as methodologies and as end products. They seek, in different ways each time, to build bridges between text and architecture, that is, between text and its perception by the minds and bodies of its readers.
Course coordinators: Phoebe Giannisi, Fani Paraforou
Participants:
AGRAVANIS ACHILLEAS | VELI MARIA | DIMITRA GIALVALI | ELENI GEKA | CHRYSOULA DIAMANTI | IRO EMMANOUILIDOU | NIKOS IOANNIDIS | AGGELIKI KALAGA SIDI | KATERINA KARAGIANNIDOU | GEORGIA KARDOULIA | ANTONIS MIZIOS | GIORGOS BAMBALIS | ATHINA BOUKOU | YIANNIS SILITZOGLOU | EMILY KOUREMENOU | AN ANA PAPADIMA | GIORGOS PETROMANOLAKIS | MARINA PAVLIDOU | MARIA KOSMIDOU | EVANGELIA DOULI | VASILIKI CHONDRU | DESPOINA MATARAGA
@ The Paddocks Gallery, Topali 18A, Skenderani 15, Volos 382 21
Duration and opening hours
Monday 10 - Saturday 14 February 2026
Tue-Fri 12:00-18:00
Sat 12:00-15:00
The pop-up exhibition is organized as part of the activities of the Laboratory of History, Theory, and Conceptual Design for Architecture, the City, and the Environment.
Nicholas Anastasopoulos, PhD researcher architect, Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, will be joining us as a jury member for the final presentation (Winter Semester 2025.26 exam) in the framework of of the Architectural Studio III-Va: Reconstructions of the Soil.
The aim is to have a broad discussion based on a critical approach to the students' proposals, which will take place on Wednesday, February 4, from 12:00 to 17:00 at the mezzanine of Arch-Uth.
To view more on our invited jury:
https://www.arch.ntua.gr/index.php/person/anastasopoulos-nikolaos/?lang=en
https://www.arch.ntua.gr/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/nanastasopoulos_cv_2023_en.pdf
https://studioa-arch.net/
farasi.zine
issue 05 / Winter 2026
Guest editor: Gregory Tsantilas
Drawings, text and graphic design: Gregory Tsantilas
Farasi.zine #5 reflects on the topic of trial and error as a methodology that shaped DISTIGMO Magazine and allowed mistakes to guide its practice. In Greek, error translates to láthos (λάθος), which etymologically implies a hidden meaning or a deviation from the expected path. Through this concept, trial and error loses its binary character and mistakes do not define right or wrong; they act as agents that actively influence and shape the creative process.
#05_φαράσι farasi_05 (2026) UTH for reading
#05_φαράσι farasi_05 (2026) UTH for printing
Gregory Tsantilas, Dipl. Architect UTH / MAS UD ETHZ is the founder and editor of DISTIGMO, an independent publisher and magazine investigating architecture’s many dimensions. The first issue, Trial and Error, focuses on mistakes as an instrument that can reveal what would otherwise remain hidden. In 2024, he co-founded confectdissect, a design practice exploring objects as functional prototypes, where research and making evolve in parallel. Between 2016 and 2025, he contributed to projects of various scales and functions, ranging from competitions to execution in Berlin and Zurich, and worked for offices including Burkhalter Sumi and Burkard Meyer Architekten. Since 2021, he has been curating an online archive of architectural references, creating dialogue among international practitioners, and in 2024 he initiated Paranarratives, an AI-based study in image-making capturing moments in spatial experiments. Gregory has been invited to lecture and lead workshops at ETH Zurich, TU Berlin, TU Munich, KΙΤDepartment of Architecture, Syracuse University School of Architecture and other institutions. He is currently based in Zurich.
8/1/26 18:00 Amphitheatre
Within the framework of the course Theories and Strategies of Reuse (Architecture Theory) of the Master's Degree in Reuse of Buildings and Complexes, the online workshop "Community-Driven Adaptive Reuse" will take place on Thursday 18/01/2025 at 16:00 [UTC+3].
Description of the Conference
Community-driven initiatives are key-factors in salvaging, protecting, disseminating and reusing abandoned and heritage buildings. They manifest a collective and individual desire that often is against official practices implemented by administrations because they are grounded on the needs of neighbourhoods and their inhabitants. Adaptive reuse is thus intended as a spatial agency where individuals, communities, or design professionals actively shape, influence, and redefine spaces beyond conventional, top-down architectural interventions. The conference aims to bring together non-governmental organizations, academics and urban activists that had worked independently on in collaboration with institutions, in community-driven initiatives in Greece.