Bricks - Fatura

DRW

Competition

HERAKLION, GREECE

Bricks

International Architectural Competition for an Innovative, Bioclimatic, European School Complex in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Organised by UIA and the School Building Organisation in Greece.
(SECOND PRIZE)

Similarly to the olive groves of the surrounding area, our project leaves traces, marks and organises the earth upon which it is built; it is a “bridge” that connects, a “clay wall” that defines and protects, and a “cave” that shelters knowledge.
We responded to the intense landscape of the area of Voutes, Crete – the cliffs and valleys of the region – and sought for an architectural gesture that would take advantage of these microclimatic conditions. At the same time, the scheme underlines the presence of the educational institution, not by standing out, but by letting the agrarian landscape play the leading role. The agricultural terraces, the dry stone walls and all the existing forms of environmentally sustainable management of earth, natural resources, and space constitute our primary references.
The volumes of the schools are arrayed facing south, in such a way that all the classrooms are exposed to the best climatic conditions of natural light and ventilation. The schools for the different age groups break into two distinct volumes occupying the two sides of a linear open plaza. While planning regulations of the region allow higher volumes, our proposal does not exceed the height of two storeys to create an open, horizontally organised school that inculcates un-hierarchical, egalitarian values to its students.
The size and typology of each school was dictated by the age and specific needs of the pupils. The kindergarten is a small-scale protected environment, organised around a small yard. The primary school is also arranged around a larger atrium, in the fashion of a contemporary agora. The secondary school – the largest building in the complex – is a compact block of two semi-independent clusters.

Team

Theodossis Issaias

Platon Issaias

Constandis Kizis

Alexandra Vougia

Collaborators

Ilias Matsas / Mechanical Engineer

Giannis Tsafoulias / Mechanical Engineer

Categories

Collective Equipment, Ecology, Environment, Infrastructure, Policy, Provision, Research, Speculative, Sustainability, Territory

About

Fatura Collaborative – Research & Design Practice, was founded in 2009 and is developing projects across a wide range of scales, from intimate objects and performance, to architecture, urban design and planning. We are interested in architecture as social infrastructure, in developing collective equipments, in the design of spaces of care, empathy and welfare. We design and research expanding new problematics about ecology, the domestic, everyday life and the city.

Members

ELISAVET HASA
ARCHITECT

is an architect, researcher and educator based in London. She holds a diploma in architecture from the School of Architecture of the University of Patras, Greece (2015) and was awarded a PhD from the School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art (2022). Her thesis dealt with the materiality of grassroots, ad hoc and mutual aid projects by social movements in Europe and the United States, with an emphasis on their relationship with the state. She is teaching in undergraduate architectural design studios and history and theory courses at the London South Bank University and Central Saint Martins. She is also a registered architect in the UK (ARB) and Greece (TCG) and has practiced architecture in London, Madrid and Athens.

PLATON ISSAIAS
ARCHITECT

is an architect, researcher, and educator. He studied architecture in Thessaloniki, Greece, and holds an MSc from Columbia University and a PhD from TU Delft and The City as a Project research collective. He is Assistant Professor of Architectural Design at the School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He is the co-Head of Projective Cities MPhil programme at the Architectural Association, where he is also teaching Diploma Unit 7 with Georgia Hablützel and Hamed Khosravi. His research interests explore urban design and architecture in relation to the politics of labour, economy, law and labour struggles. He has written and lectured extensively about Greek urbanisation and the politics of urban development.

THEODOSSIS ISSAIAS
ARCHITECT

(he/him) is an architect and educator. He serves as Curator, Heinz Architectural Center, at Carnegie
Museum of Art and Special Faculty at Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture. He studied
architecture in Athens, Greece, and holds a Master of Science in Architecture and Urbanism from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research focuses on architecture at the intersection of
human rights, conflict, and the provision of shelter. This interest led to his PhD dissertation
“Architectures of the Humanitarian Front” (2021, Yale University), which examined a period
around WWI when conflict, displacement, and territorial insecurity provoked the reconfiguration
of humanitarian operations –their spatial organization and ethical imperatives.

GIANNANTONIS MOUTSATSOS
ARCHITECT

is an architect based in Lund, Sweden. He graduated in 2010 from the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens and holds an MSc in Energy Efficient and Environmental Building Design from the School of Architecture of Lund University (2015). He has practiced architecture as a freelance architect in Greece and currently in Sweden (eg. Tengbom architects), where he works on a wide range of projects including small houses, larger residential complexes as well as care, educational and industrial facilities.

ALEXANDRA VOUGIA
ARCHITECT

is an architect and an educator. She graduated in 2007 from the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She holds the MSc in Advanced Architectural Design from GSAPP, Columbia University (2008) and a PhD from the Architectural Association – School of Architecture, London (2016). She is currently an Assistant Professor of History and Theory of Architecture at the School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has previously taught at the Architectural Association and the University of Westminster and practiced as an architect in New York and Athens.

MYRTO VRAVOSINOU
ARCHITECT

is an architect based in Thessaloniki. She graduated from the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2015 and holds an MSc in Environmental Architectural and Urban Design from the same institution (2023). Since 2017, she has been collaborating with a group of freelance engineers, working on a variety of residential, workspace, and small-scale digital fabrication projects. Her special interests lie in urban and architectural design practices that promote spatial justice.