WRT
Article
ATHENS: TA NEA
2024

Attica Wildfires – Deconstructing the distinction between ‘nature’ and the ‘city’

Original in Greek: “Αποδομώντας τη διάκριση μεταξύ Φύσης και Πόλης,” TA NEA, 7 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024. Συνεργατικό Γραφείο Φατούρα.

Team
PLATON ISSAIAS
THEODOSSIS ISSAIAS
ALEXANDRA VOUGIA
Categories
Architecture, Ecology, Environment, Landscape, Planning, Territory, Urban

Κάθε προσπάθεια βελτίωσης των συνθηκών ζωής – ανθρώπινης και μη – στο αστικό, περιαστικό, παραγωγικό και μη περιβάλλον, ιδιαίτερα μετά από μια περιβαλλοντική καταστροφή είναι αναγκαία και θετική. Οι πρόσφατες πυρκαγιές στην Αττική δεν αποτελούν εξαίρεση. Χρειάζεται να παρθούν σειρά βραχυπρόθεσμων και μακροχρόνιων μέτρων που θα έχουν όμως πολλαπλό χαρακτήρα. Παράλληλα με τις πολιτικές ετοιμότητας και τις αναγκαίες αποζημιώσεις, που θα πρέπει να γίνονται ανεξάρτητα από μια στενά οικονομοτεχνική μελέτη και αξιολόγηση επικινδυνότητας, οφείλουμε να μελετήσουμε και να αξιολογήσουμε σε βάθος χρόνου και σε πολλαπλές κλίμακες τόσο τα αίτια των καταστροφών, όσο και τη συνολική μας σχέση, ως ανθρώπινη κοινότητα, με το περιβάλλον και το τοπίο. Να μεταβούμε δηλαδή από μια συνθήκη διορθωτικών και ανακουφιστικών μέτρων, στην αναζήτηση ευθυνών και σε πολιτικές επανορθώσεων (reparations).

[…]

Every effort to improve the life conditions – of human and non-humans – within the urban, periurban, productive and non-productive environment, especially after a catastrophic environmental event, is necessary and has an overall  positive impact. The recent wildfires in Attica are not an exemption. There is a need for a series of short- and long-term measures that should operate across multiple scales. Parallel to the regional disaster preparedness policies, or the necessary compensations, which should be distributed independently of the narrow understanding provided by a financial, technocratic, and econometric position of risk assessment reports, we must study and assess the causes of these catastrophes.. Hence, we should gradually move from a condition of corrective and aid relief measures, to one focusing on accountability and reparations.

[…]

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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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