Sotiria Alexiadou (Sotiría Alexiádou) was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly in 2007. Subsequently, she earned her Master’s in Science degree in Urban Strategies form the University of Applied Arts [Universität für Angewandte Kunst], Vienna, in 2010. A few years ago, she obtained the interdepartmental MSc. in Protection, Conservation, and Restoration of Cultural Monuments (2016) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2022, she successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly under the supervision of Professor Vassilis Colonas.

She has participated in teaching teams for design studios and theoretical courses at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cyprus, the University of Thessaly, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, while also in urban design workshops organized by the University of Applied Arts of Vienna and the team Urban Transcripts. After earning her PhD, she taught as an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Architectural Engineering at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where she is currently a postdoctoral researcher (2023). Since 2022, she has been a member of the scientific team for the Erasmus+ research project “Crafting Circularity – Rethinking Sustainable Design and Construction in Architecture Education”, with academic coordinator Maria Vrontissi, Associate Professor UTH. As an architect, she has participated in architectural competitions with distinctions. Her research and architectural projects have been presented at conferences, seminars, and exhibitions. Her work has been published in various academic formats, such as conference proceedings, edited volumes, journals, catalogs, and websites.

Her research interests include the mechanisms of urban development and transformation, the evolution of post-war architecture, and its future in terms of protection, restoration, and reuse.

Furtherinfo: https://uth.academia.edu/SotiriaAlexiadou

PhD Synopsis:

Currently, the majority of Thessaloniki’s built environment is the result of the reconstruction of the city after World War ΙΙ. The urban and building reconstruction development strategies were common throughout the big cities of Greece. However, Thessaloniki developed under particular circumstances due to the starting point of its urban planning and the special conditions and regulations that were applied for the building development of the city. World War II and the Greek Civil War interrupted the city’s planning program that was established after the big fire of 1917. Thessaloniki’s development entered its post-war period under the pre-war urban planning and building regulation, but the changes in the political-social-economic landscape imposed modifications. The main goal of the dissertation is to clarify the "game" of the reconstruction of Thessaloniki during the post-war period, through the conditions and rules that contributed both to the formation of the urban field, as well as to the architecture and image of the city, taking into account the different groups of protagonists that affected the result. The methodology includes research in primary and secondary sources, interviews conducted as part of this research and field observation. The above contributed to the documentation of the urban reconstruction process of Thessaloniki, the involvement of engineers and building contractors in the reconstruction of the city and the architectural evolution of buildings for public use, social housing and especially the private buildings of the "Ordinary Everyday Modernism" of Thessaloniki during the period 1947 -1974.

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