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SUMMARY:On the Polykatoikia and its Discontents with Platon Issaias & Ioan
 na Theocharopoulou / TPOD\, ACHT\, THEMA\, HITAM
DTSTART:20240515T173000
DTEND:20240515T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T211207Z
UID:941a4a27d55eb584f6eb68921078e97f04d3db420222e6e130b2c3c0
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Ioanna Theocharopoulou and Platon Issaias.\nThe polykatoikia\
 , a multifamily apartment building\, is one of the most important and 
 paradigmatic housing types of modernity. It emerged in the post-war Atheni
 an landscape to provide shelter for the bourgeoisie amidst a critical hous
 ing shortage. Its generic form encouraged the right to private ownership\,
  independent of welfare programs. Developers and landowners collaborated t
 hrough a financial mechanism\, known as antiparochi\, where the latter rec
 eived housing stock in exchange for providing land for development. From t
 he 1930s onwards\, the proliferation of this building type was supported b
 y abstract\, state-initiated building regulations and property laws\, intr
 oducing the polykatoikia\, a multistorey apartment building\, as a way to 
 house all classes\, while integrating local building techniques and knowle
 dge. During the symposium "On the Polykatoikia and its Discontents\," orga
 nized by the laboratory Theory and Project of Domestic Space (TPOD\, EPFL)
 \, Ioanna Theocharopoulou (Columbia University) and Platon Issaias (A.A\, 
 AUTH) will challenge the historical relevance of this building type within
  the reconstruction of modern Athens.\n\n“Social Infrastructures and Ima
 ginaries: A Reading of Postwar Athens” – Ioanna Theocharopoulou (Colum
 bia University)\nTo this day\, Athens is considered by many\, as an ugly c
 ity\, a “city of cement boxes\,” and a disappointment to historians as
  well as to its citizens. Evidence of this discontent\, if not letdown\, i
 s everywhere both in the popular and the academic press\, throughout its m
 odern history. Clearly\, the reality of this relatively young city has con
 sistently elicited unfavorable comparisons to the majesty of its Classical
  past. Ioanna Theocharopoulou will try to unravel the source of this compa
 rison and offer an alternative reading of Athens using the concept of soci
 al infrastructures and imaginaries. Who were those who built this city\, a
 nd what might the history of Athens look like if we tried to see it from t
 heir point of view? What was the story of their encounter with the project
  of modernity\, and what “lessons” might we draw for how we think of a
 rchitectural history and the growth of cities from this example?\n\n“The
  Domino Effect” – Platon Issaias (A.A\, AUTH)\nPlaton Issaias will ref
 lect upon the history of the Greek city and its distinct domestic architec
 ture\, the polykatoikia. Using this as a device\, it aims to critique the 
 popular category of ‘informal urbanism’ by interrogating the underlyin
 g relation between urban management and architectural form. What is at sta
 ke is to establish and theorize the strategic link between domestic space\
 , production\, conflict\, and debt. How forms of domestic ethos\, habits\,
  and practices of domestic life could be related to administrative and man
 agerial projects? How this way of thinking about the city could be used to
  confront the distinction between ‘formal’ and ‘informal’? What ma
 kes a diagram of space and social relations\, such as the Greek apartment 
 building\, a successful territorial\, biopolitical machine? What is the ro
 le of construction in the formation of the Greek economy and how do archit
 ects and engineers formalize this relation?\n\nIoanna Theocharopoulou (she
 /her)\, is an architect\, architectural historian\, and author of Builders
 \, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens (2017 and 2022). She t
 eaches at Columbia University.\n\nPlaton Issaias (he/him)\, is an architec
 t\, co-founder of Fatura Collaborative. He teaches architecture and urban 
 design at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Architectural A
 ssociation.\n\nNeighbours Lecture Series Vol. 3\n\n13/3 - Pier Vittorio Au
 reli (EPFL). Architecture and Abstraction: Book Launch with Sarah Nichols\
 , Christophe van Gerrewey\, and Alfredo Thiermann\n20/3 - Tatiana Efrussi 
 (L’atelier des artistes en exil). Hannes Meyer’s Kinderheim Mümliswil
 : From Utopian 'Home' to National Memorial\n27/3 - Sarah Gainsforth (Journ
 alist). Challenging the New Housing Question\n10/4 - Claire Zimmerman (Uni
 versity of Toronto). Industrial Architecture\, Situated in the Twentieth C
 entury\n24/4 - Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago (Universidad Politécnica de Madri
 d). Against the Commons: Elements for a Radical Planning Theory\n1/5 - Spy
 ros Papapetros (Princeton University). Pre/Architecture\n8/5 - Anna-Maria 
 Meister (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz: Max Planck Institute\, KIT
  and saai archive Karlsruhe). Fragile Objects\, Coded Knowledge\n15/5 - Pl
 aton Issaias (Architectural Association) & Ioanna Theocharopoulou (Columbi
 a University). On the Polykatoikia and its Discontents\n\n\n\n\n 
LOCATION:Archizoom
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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