Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
School of Architecture
P26 | INHABITING FRAGILE TERRITORIES. A little story for a little house
by Stelios Psaltis
Nature in its entirety, as a wider site of action, is seen both as an imaginary creation and at the same as an “other” and “strange” territory, upon which the material existence and life are depending. Following this bipolar interpretations, nature is conceived either through its peculiar, bizarre and wild development, or through its vulnerable, delicate, fragile and gentle fertility. Within this “manufactured” personal environment, the importance of architecture is evident in its participation as a means of emergence of a new relation between knowledge-technique and imagination-natural indeterminacy, raising challenges for possible ways of inhabitation within its cumbersome and even pathologically inevitable materiality. An architectural construction constitutes an organism, which performs a specific number of basic functions. An organic composition, a kind of an artificial parasite, sensitive to the dynamic changes of the surrounding territory, humbly adapted and “floating” with tenacity within a fragment of the earthly crust, mobilizing architectural elements to succeed to “survive”. As the moral architectural issues are surpassed by default, the architectural construction is treated as the main survival apparatus, “demoted” in its absolutely natural utilitarian role (that of survival instinct), complied with the brutality of the surrounding territory’s survival instinct.
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Stelios Psaltis was born in Patra, Greece, in 1987. He studied Architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, (Dipl. Ing. Arch. M.Arch AUTh 2011) and at the ETH, Zurich (MAS CAAD 2012). He graduated from both institutes with honors and distinctions. His graduate research and design thesis were focused on experimental design approaches for interaction between humans and nature. His design thesis was a nominated project for the Archiprix 2013 award. His recent interests are related to computer aided architectural design, by applying advanced design tools and emerging technologies. He is an active architect, currently located in Zurich, Switzerland. He has been involved in various projects and international competitions. Parts of his work, both theoretical and practical, as an individual or as member of teams, have been exhibited and published in Greece and abroad.
School of Architecture
P26 | INHABITING FRAGILE TERRITORIES. A little story for a little house
by Stelios Psaltis
Nature in its entirety, as a wider site of action, is seen both as an imaginary creation and at the same as an “other” and “strange” territory, upon which the material existence and life are depending. Following this bipolar interpretations, nature is conceived either through its peculiar, bizarre and wild development, or through its vulnerable, delicate, fragile and gentle fertility. Within this “manufactured” personal environment, the importance of architecture is evident in its participation as a means of emergence of a new relation between knowledge-technique and imagination-natural indeterminacy, raising challenges for possible ways of inhabitation within its cumbersome and even pathologically inevitable materiality. An architectural construction constitutes an organism, which performs a specific number of basic functions. An organic composition, a kind of an artificial parasite, sensitive to the dynamic changes of the surrounding territory, humbly adapted and “floating” with tenacity within a fragment of the earthly crust, mobilizing architectural elements to succeed to “survive”. As the moral architectural issues are surpassed by default, the architectural construction is treated as the main survival apparatus, “demoted” in its absolutely natural utilitarian role (that of survival instinct), complied with the brutality of the surrounding territory’s survival instinct.
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