DRW
Competition
ATHENS, GREECE
2006

The Block

European Architectural Competition for the design of a housing and shopping complex in Metaxourgeio, Athens, Greece. Organised by GEK SA and DOMES, International Review of Architecture.

The proposal begins from the study of the relationship between the building and the broader area of Metaxourgeio, as well as the qualities of living in the centre of a modern metropolis such as Athens. The current condition of Metaxourgeio, as well as its adjacent areas, create the current complex and full of contradictions image of the old historical centre of the city. Young residents, refugees, new social strata choose and return to a life in the centre and there construct new neighbourhoods and small communities, reversing the previously degraded condition.
The design itself articulates a transition from the “urban environment” of the main street to the characteristics of the neighbourhood scale. The main volume emphasises the longitudinal axis and mirrors the public image of the street to the structure of the building. The other two volumes derive their spatial expression from the lower density volumes of the surrounding buildings. Typologically, the main invention here is the adoption of the autonomous two-storey residential unit and its architectural elements (raised ground floors, courtyard-passage as an entrance point to the houses, the smaller balconies, et al.) and the latter’s incorporation in a continuous building system. The building is organised on a primary and a secondary grid, which define the basic housing unit of 60m2. These dimensions allow for the formation of larger units by extending the grid laterally and vertically from the basic core.
Finally, the outdoor space of the complex was conceived as a single, shared space for recreation, play and social contact – a “multi-purpose” space for the residents. The design of this space, with its different qualities, the small outdoor living rooms, the use of soft flooring materials that enhance the microclimate, etc. highlight and emphasise a sense of communal and harmonious coexistence for the residents, while at the same time an aspiration to become a reference point for the neighbourhood and the wider area overall.

Team
Platon Issaias
Theodossis Issaias
Giannis Kandyliaris
Ilias Papageorgiou
Leonidas Tramboukis
Alexandra Vougia
Categories
Architecture, Domesticity, Housing, Urban

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.

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