Apostolos Kyriazis
The Sky: The Anthropogenic and Natural Environment
Lecture
Wednesday April 01st 2026 18:00 (GMT+2) Room E
Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly
Pedion Areos, Volos
Lecture within the framework of the course Introduction to Architecture II.
Tutors: Giannisi Phoebe, Kosma Anthi, Kouzoupi Aspasia, Lykourioti Iris
Bio
Apostolos Kyriazis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1976. He holds a Diploma (BArch and MArch) in Architecture, an MSc in Urban Planning and a PhD in Architecture and Urban Regeneration from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has been a practitioner since 2000, with three awards in architecture competitions, two participations at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2016 and 2018), one exhibition participation with the ECC in Venice, Italy in 2021 and numerous housing and urban planning projects in Greece, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.
He has also been an active Scholar/Academic since 2008. He worked as an Adjunct Lecturer from 2008 to 2013 at Schools of Architecture in Thessaloniki, Volos and Xanthi, Greece. He joined Abu Dhabi University as an Assistant Professor of Architecture in 2015 and he recently got promoted to Associate Professor. He has published and presented academic research in numerous Conferences and conducts Research in collaboration with other international institutions. His field of expertise is the Neighborhood scale, urban regeneration, urban morphologies, public space, informality, social housing.
He is also an enthusiast photographer with seven participations at group exhibitions and five international awards/distinctions. He currently lives with his family in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
THESIS EXHIBITION
selections from the February 2026 examination period
Tuesday, March 10 - Monday, March 30, 2026
Dept. ARCH exhibition hall | 9:00-21:00 daily
Lecture by Niki Sorvani “Map-writing for feminist and queer approaches”
Thursday 26/3/2026 14:00-17:00 - Οnline - https://msteams.link/KSD2
Download the poster.
The lecture will take place online in the framework of the course: Special Topics In Theory of Architecture Ii: Decolonising Architecture (Instructor: P. Phokaides, Ass. Prof. Dept. of Arch, UTh)
Short bio:
Niki Sorvani is an architect from the Department of Architecture at the University of Thessaly, whose academic and research activity lies at the intersection of architecture, feminist geography, and queer spatial studies. She holds a PhD from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), focusing on critical analysis of normativity in modernism through the Paradigm of Ernst Neufert's architectural standards handbook, a MSc in Design-Space-Culture from NTUA and a MA in Gender, Society, and Politics from Panteion University. Her research focuses on the gendered and embodied dimensions of space. Her monograph Inhabiting the Uncanny: Toward a Spatial Exploration of the “Closet” was published in 2025. She has additionally participated at conferences, with publications in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, as well as lectures whose central theoretical axis is a feminist and queer approach to space — from the scale of the body and the house to the urban environment.
Designing Land: Kuklen Industrial Park and the Transformation of Plovdiv’s Peripheries through Global Production
Ina Valkanova
Thursday 26.3, 14.00
ONLINE
This lecture presents an in-depth study of a global production landscape on the periphery of Plovdiv—the Trakia Economic Zone. Building on discussions of material flows, networks, and social dynamics, it examines how land is transformed through interconnected material, regulatory, and experiential processes.
Focusing on the role of the private construction company Senit, the lecture traces how industrial development was initiated on former agricultural land and enabled through alliances between political, financial, and advisory actors. In doing so, it highlights the mechanisms of extended industrial urbanization. The case of Industrial Park Kuklen is examined through land ownership patterns, transactions, and management structures, revealing the political-economic frameworks that have shaped the area, alongside emerging practices of care and environmental repair.
The lecture further explores the evolving material life of the landscape, shaped by both human and non-human forces, where natural processes intersect with the controlled design of industrial infrastructures. By approaching industrial territories as dynamic and relational environments, it offers a multi-layered, more-than-human understanding of global production landscapes, challenging the notion that such developments occur on a tabula rasa or are governed solely by dominant economic and political forces.
Ina Valkanova is a researcher, urbanist, and activist. Her work explores the relationship between global production and local environments, focusing on a special economic zone on the periphery of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD from ETH Zürich (Institute of Landscape and Urban Studies) and a Dipl.-Ing. from RWTH Aachen University. From 2017 to 2019, she served as Coordinator for Investment and Innovation for Sofia’s long-term development strategy, Vision for Sofia 2050. Prior to this, she was Director of the international festival One Architecture Week in Plovdiv. Ina is a co-founder of Gradoscope, a Sofia-based collective focusing on urban and landscape process design in complex urban initiatives and redevelopment projects. She has taught at the University of Architecture in Sofia and at ETH Zürich, and has lectured widely across Europe, including at Copenhagen Architecture Week, Belgrade International Architecture Week, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and KU Leuven. Her work has been published in Steel Cities: The Architecture of Logistics in Central and Eastern Europe, Dimensions Journal, and Bauwelt, among others. She served on the jury of the 2025 New European Bauhaus Awards and recently co-curated the exhibition It Was All Fields Once, presented at CIVA and Track Brussels.
Within the framework of the course
MACHINE IN THE GARDEN: Wanderings through the Countryside
By the Observatory of the Countryside
Tutor: Metaxia Markaki
For online attendance contact memarkaki@uth.gr
On Wednesday, 18 March 2026, as part of the Erasmus+ BIP "QueerrRing Ecologies: Performative Approaches within and around Bodies of Water and Waterscapes", a series of lectures will take place at the Museum of the City of Volos. Duration 18:00-21:00.
Please find the detailed programme here.
Erasmus+ BIP:
DArch, UTh Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly
EBABX École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
ERG École de Ρecherche Graphique
DCCMI, UThDepartment of Culture + Creative Media and Industries, University of Thessaly