Through speeches, articles and interviews, this book highlights some of the more significant considerations that have run parallel with Vassilis Sgoutas’ own steps in architecture. It also includes a Random Diary, where the focus is not on what was said or written, but rather on experiences and thoughts that have emanated from events related to architects and to architecture. Although this book is a personal book, it is also a mirror of the parallel roads of many architects. Through its pages, glimpses can be caught of the more recent history of the UIA, a unique professional organisation that brings together the architects of the world, in pursuit of common ideals and targets. Memory is our wealth. Having on record these texts and events helps rediscover how our priorities have changed. And how they differ across the globe. In reading between the lines one will be able to gauge what has been the legacy of actions, or inaction, and where architects, as individuals and as a profession, have had a positive influence on the advancement of causes. So it is a little more than mere history, it is also an awakening call.
Introduction speech by
Fani Vavili, Αrchitect, Professor in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, President of the Hellenic Department of the International Association of Architects (UIA)
Speakers
Nikos Vatopoulos, Journalist – Writer
Pavlos Lefas, Architect, Professor in University of Patras
Yannis Michael, Architect – Planner
Dimitris Filippidis, Architect, Professor Emeritus in Archaeology at the national Technical University of Athens
A discussion will follow, with audience participation.
The upcoming New Town Lab in Sabaudia will take place from the afternoon of May 16th until the evening of May 17th and will focus on public spaces as places of integration. (How) can public space play a role in accommodating the needs and desires of the multifaceted and diverse population of Sabaudia? Four or five locations in the city will be explored by the students from the University of Padua. They have already begun studying how collective spaces – piazzas, parks, markets and public transport hubs – can contribute to making our contemporary cities more inclusive and socially and culturally cohesive. One of the case studies will be the Bella Farnia estate, located 7km outside the centre. This coastal estate consists mainly of holiday houses, small villas and residences which today are partially used to accommodate the migrant community. Two distinct groups co-exist: the Italian middle class and a Punjab (Indian) Sikh community that works in the municipal territory’s many greenhouses.
Japan Architects Association JIA Hall 1F Building Club 2-3-18 Jingumae Shibuya-ku Tokyo, Japan
Since opening its shores to the outside world in the late nineteenth century, Japan has sustained an active relationship of cultural exchange with the West. Japan's grand resort hotels, built during the era between the Restoration of the Meiji Emperor in 1868 until the onset of war in the late 1930s, are some of the most engaging and enduring examples of this cross-fertilization. Eager to champion both its national identity and its status as a modern nation, Japanese hoteliers looked to adapt Western hotel standards to the aesthetic and cultural demands of the Japanese archipelago. With their buildings they provided glamorous settings in which worldly Japanese and curious Westerners could mingle. The grand hotels are romantic hybrids of Beaux Arts grandeur and Japanese temple and shrine motifs, and offer the pleasures of both architectural traditions. They straddle two worlds, being both familiar and exotic to visitors and locals alike. Welcoming the West focuses on the history and design of six of these grand resort hotels: the Nara, the Fujiya, the Nikko Kanaya, the Fuji View, the Biwako, and the Gamagori. Built at a pivotal moment when Japan’s architectural traditions were latent with change and possibility, they are a manifestation of an unprecedented exchange of ideas wrought in timber, stone, and concrete.
All over the world, cities are facing challenges. How can we make a success out of the endeavour to develop and keep the urban space as a common space for society, even during times when it is capitalized and privatized? What is the part played by art, culture, architecture, self-organized action and activism?
During the past few years, artists, architects, philosophers, urbanists and activists from seven different European cities tackled these aspects within the project ACTOPOLIS | The Art of Action. The exhibition sets forth examples of projects from Ankara/Mardin, Athens, Bucharest, Belgrade, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb. The materials coming from the over 45 individual projects make up a substantial portfolio of possibilities for transforming and improving the cities we live in. The exhibition (design NODE, Berlin – Oslo and SSW Architekten, Berlin) offers inspiration and concrete impulses to act.
With the exhibition traveling to Izmir a new city joined the ACTOPOLIS network! Apart from the exhibition at the Chamber of Architects, the "Flying Carpet Tour" programme is collecting stories in public spaces throughout Izmir. More information and upates about the exhibition here. http://blog.goethe.de/actopolis | www.goethe.de Exhibition: November 15th - November 28th 2017 Opening: November 15th
For now, Thessaloniki will be the last stop of the Actopolis touring exhibition. Curator Lydia Chatziiakovou was putting together a list of artists and projects that will be showcased together with the touring Actopolis exhibits in Thessaloniki's Old Slaughterhouse. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Municipality of Thessaloniki. Artists and projects exclusively presented in the Actopolis Thessaloniki exhibition: Efthimis Theou / Elektra Aggelopoulou, Eric Ellingsen, Swaantje Güntzel / Jan Phillip Scheibe, Greece Communitere, Andrea Iten, Practise(in)Cognition, Lynn Peemoeller. www.goethe.de | www.facebook.com/events Exhibition: November 24th - December 6th 2017 Opening: November 24th 2017, 7pm
Within the „Region l Architecture for All Work Group meeting” in Dublin | 13th and 14th November 2017
Vassilis Sgoutas, past president of UIA, chairperson of the final jury for the Friendly and Inclusive Spaces Awards, and the person who as UIA president in 1999 established both the Architecture for All and the Architecture and Children Work Programmes will engage “in conversation” with Irish architect and journalist Shane O’Toole about his book „A Journey with the Architects of the World”, the many topics it covers and the role of UIA, hopefully culminating in a lively dialogue with Irish architects and members of AfA WP.
Aalborg University Auditorium Fredrik Bajers Vej 5 Postboks 159 9100 Aalborg Denmark
From September 21-23. the DIST center at Aalborg University in Copenhagen will host a conference on experimental urban development in cooperation with GivRum. The purpose of the conference is to gather researchers, planners, developers and activists to a three day exploration of how we can create more liveable and sustainable cities through experimental urban development. The conference is framed by the international City Link festival, which is this year happening in the Sydhavn neighborhood in Copenhagen. The festival theme is “building bridges” and works with how to sustain and develop communities in the area.
September 21: Activists and researchers present and reflect on protest actions, art projects and cultural spaces from Hamburg that are connected to the local right to the city network (Recht auf Stadt). Together they will illustrate that it’s often artists, activists and cultural producers who open up laboratories in the city and carry out experiments in public space for co-creation, self-organization and alternative community life.
This way they contribute to the liveability of cities, foster local democracy and reinforce urban resilience. This part of the conference is organized and presented by Michael Ziehl, Carsten Rabe and Till Haupt, editors of “City Linkage: Art and Culture Fostering Urban Futures”. The publication bases on events, lectures and exhibitions of the City Link Festival 2014 in Hamburg.
Schedule of the Panel: “City Linkage” introduction and presentation by Michael Ziehl, Carsten Rabe and Till Haupt – 18 min. “How to Claim the Right to the City” talk by Till Haupt – 18 min. “Producing Urban Citizenship in Arrivati Park” talk by Niels Boeing – 18 min. “A Space of Performing Citizenship: The Gängeviertel” talk by Michael Ziehl – 18 min. “Unclosing Spaces by Means of a Festival: Hallo Festspiele” talk by Dorothee Halbrock, Julia Lerch-Zajączkowska – 10 min. open panel discussion, special guest: Oleg Koefoed (Growing Pathways, Copenhagen) – 38 min.
Arc en rêve centre d'architecture Entrepôt 7 rue Ferrère 33000 Bordeaux France
From 14 September 2017 to 14 January 2018, arc en rêve centre d’architecture presents the exhibition “infidélités créatives TOPOTEK 1” devoted to the Berlin-based landscape design studio TOPOTEK 1. The exhibition takes place in the stimulating context of a contemporary urban society that is increasingly eager to embrace nature. In the framework of the numerous projects they have carried out in Europe and Asia, the TOPOTEK 1 landscape designers invariably draw their inspiration from local cultural and historic references. They are also interested in other aspects linked to global urban diversity, which they include in their creations.
Thursday 14 September 2017: 6.30 pm presentation, 8:30 pm inauguration
UIA 26th World Congress in Seoul COEX Convention Center and Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul Symposium Hall of Exhibition Hall C (3F)
The book presentation “A Journey with the Architects of the World” by Vassilis Sgoutas will take place on Tuesday September 5 at 15:00 pm in the Symposium Hall of Exhibition Hall C (3F).
The UIA world congresses are a forum for professional and cultural exchange among all the world's architects, and bring together thousands of participants from around the globe. Each event focuses on a pertinent theme, developed by eminent personalities from the international architectural, planning, and construction fields. Debates, exhibitions, tours and festivals make them the perfect meeting place for colleagues and friends, and students of architecture are always welcome. With Keynote speeches and presentations on the key issues of today’s architecture delivered by internationally renowned architects and global leaders. Keynote Forum
Royal Institute of British Architects RIBA 66 Portland Place London, W1B 1AD
JSWD are involved in a wide range of building projects—from a school to a research institute, from a residential building to a museum—and each project is conceived from scratch. One aspect dominates all finished buildings, as well as those currently under construction: they show an intense involvement with the façade, the “skin” of the building, which connects inside and outside and gives the houses a unique character. The exhibition shows examples of prominent building envelopes.
Museum of Vancouver at Vanier Park in Kitsilano 1100 Chestnut Street Vancouver Canada
Today about 60% of the Viennese population live in municipally built, owned or managed housing and the city clearly controls its housing market. This is a different condition than exists in the United States where, in most cases, the private market is the provider of housing and is relied upon even to rehabilitate existing neighborhoods and create new communities.
To expand this architectural and urban discussion, the curators invited Vancouver and Vienna based artists and cultural researchers Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber to look at these communal spaces and concepts and speculate on how they resonate within artistic and cultural practices. Their selection of art projects and public works will accompany, reflect upon, and contextualize the selected examples and also shape the format of the exhibition and publication.
The Vienna Model is curated by Wolfgang Förster and William Menking, and is brought to Vancouver on the initiative of Urban Subjects (Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, Helmut Weber), an artist collective based in both Vancouver and Vienna.
