02/2015
Design studio
08 EX 12 - 'Spatial Investigations / Xorikes Dierevniseis'
School of Architecture, Aristotle University Thessaloniki
2014-2015 :: Spring semester
http://xorikesdierevniseis.blogspot.com


The course’s object is the research on the procedure of architectural design and the investigation of its origins and its limits. The course will attempt to connect architectural design, as a deep, creative procedure with the broad fields of innovation, the study of structures (typological, formal, technological, biological, etc.), the scientific observation, as well as other scientific and creative fields, using advanced technologies for the design, spatial representation and digital fabrication.
The aim of this course is to understand the dynamics of space and its qualities, the challenging of established building schemes, the experimental process of complex and sometimes unexpected alternative functional programs. The purpose is the final proposal of innovative spatial situations, through comprehensive, synthetic architectural narratives.
Particular emphasis is placed on encouraging the development of personal design vocabularies, portraying flexibility and resourcefulness in responding to complex spatial requirements. Students will be challenged to a continuous processing of their design proposal through the use of three-dimensional spatial representational tools, digital and physical models, which may be conceptual, diagrammatic and not necessarily representational.

This year’s topic, titled DOMINO, will attempt to respond in unexpected manners to challenges presented by systemic, established structural and formal models of organizing space, architecture and the city.

Throughout the course, workshops will be organized on experimental architectural design, advanced modelling conditions and spatial organizations. Research findings of the design studio will be presented in an international scientific conference and selected fabricated models will be proposed to be exhibited.

The course’s external contributors are Fotis Vasilakis (Dip.Arch. AUTH, MArch IAAC, UPC Barcelona), Ioanna Symeonidou (Dip. Arch. AUTH, MSc EmTech AA, PhD Cand AUTH, University Lecturer TU Graz), Fotis Sagonas (Dip.Arch. AUTH, PhD Cand. AUTH) and Vassilis Chlorokostas (Dip.Arch. AUTH, M.Arch Bartlett UCL).