Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
School of Architecture
P25 | Lapis Callidus
by Efthymia-Dimitra Kotsani / Georgios Tsakiridis
The project engages with the re-negotiation of spatial, architectural, functional and social structures that emerge from the blurring of boundaries between the contemporary natural and artificial milieus. The inherently dystopical territory of the abandoned sulfur mines, located in a volcanic subterranean area of a Greek island, became the architectural medium for the exploration and research of new ways of habitation. Key factor in this ambiguous equilibrium is the natural element of Sulfur, through its multitude of forms. The outcome of a thorough research concluded on the emphases of the highly symbolic character of sulfur, throughout the human history, apart from its fundamental role in the contemporary, worldwide industrial production. The project speculates on the articulation of the, inherently complex, system of sulfur-crystalline structures, through the coding/de-coding of the information, which is concentrated and exchanged on the digital world of the Web. Based on the material polymorphism of Sulfur, the information is "subjected" in a physical gradual deterioration -up to its complete "erase"- acting as a form of "natural" hacking and, eventually, implying the relative role of the "archivist" and the archive itself. The potential architectural rhetoric that emerges from the engagement with this multi-sensory system is based on possible tooling techniques, which stimulate radical material (trans)formations. The implementation of an experimenting prototype multitasking-network of robotic units, as the major fabricating mechanism, enables the performance of the system (sulfuric crystal breeding formations). The resulting transformations of its territorial surrounding (an artificially generated cave-network system), through the combined processes of mining and chemical reactions, signify the materialized traces of its own "struggle for survival".
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Efthymia-Dimitra Kotsani was born in 1987, in Xanthi, Greece. She is an architect with a Professional Diploma from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is currently attending the postgraduate program "MArch Graduate Architectural Design" at the Bartlett School of Architecture, in London. Part of her work has been presented in exhibitions and conferences.
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Georgios Tsakiridis was born in 1987 in Thessaloniki, Greece. He studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where he graduated (Dip. Arch. AUTh) and currently he is studying at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (M. Arch. GAD). He has taken part in numerous international workshops and competitions and his work has been published and exhibited in Greece and abroad. Parts of his work, along with his diploma thesis have been presented in several international conferences. As an active architect he has been involved in small-scale residential projects in Thessaloniki, Greece.