Architecture in Progress

Project: LTN_Summer Houses in Tinos Island

Team: J.Leontopoulos, G.Voudouri

Stage: In Progress

Designing a house near the sea, is pretty much about creating different kinds of “in between” open air spaces, always respecting the natural environment. Here are the first sketches of a summer house in Tinos. The spaces are articulated in a longitudinal pattern between two of the stone retaining walls that already existed in the mountain. Instead of a bigger volume, the spaces are divided into two, so that between them a patio protected from the strong wind provides an extra living space which could easily be used during the whole day.  Another, smaller patio in the East, provides a different, more cosy  atmosphere for different moods.

Fabrication without age limit

New generations of kids have opportunities that even people of our age didn’t come up with so easily. I’ m talking about the development of IaaC’ s initiative to bring kids in touch with digital fabrication. It started with a one-day workshop last year and ended up in regular weekly classes for teenagers with great results (see older post, and last year’s class here). This year, the initiative is growing, since FabLabkids is an independent branch of Fab Lab Barcelona, with its very own program and approach to fabrication. It gives in my opinion a great opportunity to youngsters of 9-16 years old to get in touch with high end technology, to have fun, and-why not- discover great scientific potential that might have gone to waist without the proper stimulation. Keep up the nice work guys!

Light and Geometry:case studies_Coop Himmelab(l)au+Tadao ando

Academic essay
NTUA 2006
Tutor: Andreas Kourkoulas

The comparative study of two buildings from important contemporary architects, The Church Of The Light by Tadao Ando and the UFA Cinema Center by Coop Himmelb(l)au, in relation to the use of light, gives us the opportunity to understand how they conceive the interaction of geometry with light and in what way do their buildings materialize it.
Tadao Ando in his Church creates a “Magic Box” of concrete where with only three main gestures he preserves dim light in the building and at the same time reveals the different qualities of light and shadow from non-material to absolute materiality. That way, through the bursting and dimming of light, he re-invents the substantial ingredients of the relation of man to God and he gives us a space rich in symbolism that transports the user to a transcending reality.
Coop Himmelb(l)au, in their Cinema Center, through the use of complicated geometries create a building that, like a deformed diamond, changes form and gives different shadows in relation to the passing of time and the viewer’s position, just like a real kaleidoscope. The result is a building which, due to its deliberate lack of order, “plays” with the light without forming clear limits and it inserts the user in an environment somewhere between reality and illusion.

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Architecture and Urbanity in a World of Connectivity

“We are living in the time of ultimate mobility and change. Human space and interaction no longer work the way we knew, since it is not now so important who and where we are as how we connect to things. It’s all about connections and networks. This change is mainly introduced by the ever-developing digital technologies that have modified the way we live and work and even the way we create history and our personal memories.

Here lies the danger though of a growing deterritorialization and decontextualization of our cities and architecture in general, against which planners have long remained numb. It is just about time to take a close look on how buildings and cities are affected and what strategy should we, as architects and urban planners, follow in order to preserve all the complexity of urban life closely integrated in the urban fabric”.

part of an essay composed during the Master Program 07-08 at IaaC, Barcelona

tutor:Neil Leach

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