Design Studio Required Elective at semester(s) 6, 8, ECTS: 12
Teaching Assistants: Giorgos Kalaoyzis, Giorgos Loukakis, Magdalini Grigoriadou, Themis Lekkas
Analysis, Synthesis
This architectural studio aims to introduce students to a new kind of architectural thought, one that redefines the notion of space within a contemporary, technologically permeated, reality. Students are given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the development of an architectural vocabulary that brings together physical and digital reality. Consequently, they develop their design capabilities, as well as other, related ways, of audiovisual representation, and at the same time, they start engaging critically with hybrid environments.
The main object of this architectural studio is the design of an architectural landscape which comments on its nature and its relationship with physicality, on the functional as well as on the conceptual level. Students are asked to design their own narrative within a digital environment, getting in touch, in this way, with the importance of the notion of ‘condition’ as an inherent mechanism of spatial production.
In the beginning, students are asked to create a landscape that relates to the characteristics of digital space, for example, excess, illusion or transcendence. In particular, the main theme of this semester is the archipelago. The concept of archipelago is based upon contradictory notions that constitute all together a heterogeneous structure into a new whole. The system of the archipelago is not subordinated to the hierarchical structure or even to the succession, but instead it is coherent to the coexistence of the different relationships, the multiple alternatives, the creative escapes and so on. The archipelago is an obvious and at the same time a concealed conceptual network of intentions and boundaries that manage both the particular conditions and the urban and permanent services. The archipelago is not only a place, but primarily it is a multi-city with densely populated settlements and dilutions, with digestations and manifestations of diversity.
Hereupon, students apply those characteristics to the design narrative of a new environment - an archipelago. This environment is being developed in a unique site of preference - a video game design software open for project development and experimentation. This kind of software offers the possibility of representing a multiplicity of conditions, including weather elements, human interactivity, physics and other technical details involved in the process of architectural design. In this way, a differentiated approach to architectural design is attempted, making use of contemporary technological tools and parallel to that, acquainting students with the multi-faceted and multi-conditional nature of an architectural narrative.
Foucault, Michel, Of Other Spaces: Heterotopias, Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, 1984
Leach, Neil (Ed.), Designing for a Digital World, Academy Press; 2002
McCullough, Malcolm, Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and Environmental Knowing,The MIT Press; 2005