UNIT- 2

living where the immaterial matters_towards the commons

Tutors & Coordinators:

Maria Hadjisoteriou, Architect, Associate Professor, University of Nicosia

Yiorgos Hadjichristou, Architect, Professor, University of Nicosia

Tutors:

Christos Papastergiou, Architect, Doctor, Adjunct Faculty, University of Nicosia

Unit 2_ Re-defying the central and west entrances of the old port of Limassol [student competiton] — Unit 2_ Re-defying the central and west entrances
of the old port of Limassol [student competiton]

The Unit’s core investigation is to provoke a debate on the issue of immaterial matter, and its creative response in redefining a new hybrid urban environment. Architecture and the city are seen as one unified evolving organism which keeps incessantly defining and being defined by multiple agents. As Pallasmaa argues ‘a building is not an end itself; it frames, articulates, restructures, gives significance, relates, separates and unites, facilitates and prohibits’[1].

In a need of rethinking and redefining our cities due to the increasing global environmental, social and economic crises, Unit 2 aims to enrich our architectural understanding of Commons and explore their potential role in articulating architectural ideas.

Notions of Spatial Agency will be considered as alternative ways of doing architecture. The Unit aims to question the role of architecture as a static object, a work of authorship. The production of space will be discussed as an organic process that evolves and adapts over time to the needs and aspirations of the users, where it allows multiple social actors to contribute to the creation of ‘social space’.

The architect is re-introduced as an ‘Agent’ being responsive to the longer-term desires and needs of the multitude of others who build, live in, work in, occupy, and experience architecture and social space[2].

Starting from the relationship of the immaterial qualities to the material build environment, the Unit will investigate and emphasize the intangible essence of architecture as the generator of hybrid architectural typologies that reflect the ever-changing needs of the city, public space and its social practices.

Four pillars of investigation runned simultaneously during the semester:

Inclusive Architecture
Understanding the Commons _ explore its potential role in architecture
Spatial Agency
Intangible qualities in architecture _ issues of perception

[1] Pallaasmaa Juhani lecture

[2] Tatjana Schneider, Jeremy Till, Nishat Awan, ‘Spatial Agency other ways of doing Architecture’, Routledge, 2011