The 7th event of the Material Matters series, organized by ek magazine, was successfully completed on June 16. The event, hosted at the Banquet Hall of the Athens Concert Hall, was dedicated to the design and construction of architectural facades. It was coordinated by architects Ariadne Vozani, Professor at NTUA and Editorial Director of ek magazine, and Stavros Martino, member of the Editorial Team. The invited speakers presented two of their own projects and one by another architect, from their own perspective, within a time limit of 10 minutes.
The first speakers of the evening were Natassa Lianou and Ermis Halvatzis of LC Architects, who presented their projects Orbit and Antenna Group at the level of application study, while pointing towards the future of facades with the use of fiber-reinforced concrete. Then, Nikolas Travassaros of Divercity Architects focused on the relationship between visibility and body movement, through the office building on Syngrou Avenue and the new Mitsis N’U Piraeus Port hotel, using Jean Nouvel’s Institut du Monde Arabe as a reference building. Matilda Beraha of Arid conducted a thoughtful investigation on the facade as a limit, showing the Veil building in Kypseli and the shipping company building on Alimos Avenue, drawing references from similar projects in New York and Paris.
Dimitra Katsota of Buerger Katsota Architects highlighted the importance of the façade as part of public space in the work of Alison and Peter Smithson, subsequently bringing the same reasoning to the design of the new facilities of the University of Nicosia in Hellinikon and the office building under completion on Kifissias Avenue. Anargyros Mougiakos of ISV focused on the façade as a sculptural construction of stacked standardized elements, with examples from American modernism of the 1950s and two corresponding applications in special-purpose buildings in Athens. Fotini Gouveli and Niki Katsaragaki of A&S Architects brought to the fore the importance of the “fifth façade”, both through the office building on Piraeus Street and Education City in Doha, using the reuse of the silo in Copenhagen by Cobe Architects as a reference building.
Eraclis Papachristou of Eraclis Papachristou Architects spoke about the challenges of designing tall buildings through two recent examples in Limassol, focusing on the importance of the view – but also the overall vision – combined with haptics. Ivi Nanopoulou and Eri Nikoloudi of TPA-Thymios Papagiannis and Associates chose two of their projects that are separated by a time gap of almost 60 years – the OSE Building on Karolou Street and the under-construction Greek Maritime Tradition Park “Odysseas” in Faliraki Bay – showing the continuity of the office’s thinking through the creative reading of place, landscape and history, while they brought Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris as a reference building. Loukas Bobotis of Bobotis+Bobotis Architects spoke about his personal residence in Athens and the One Floreasca complex in Bucharest, citing the renovation of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome as a model.
The evening concluded with the keynote speech by Doriana Mandrelli Fuksas and Massimiliano Fuksas, who presented an impressive panorama of their work, both in terms of interior design and building complexes and public spaces. The presence of the renowned architectural firm Studio Fuksas, gave a special significance to this year’s event, opening a dialogue with the Greek architectural community and confirming the very high quality of the presentations of the event.
The event was held under the auspices of the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Athens, the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Thessaloniki and the Hellenic Institute of Architecture. Material Matters vol. 7 was honored with the presence of the Ambassador of Italy, Mr. Paolo Cuculi.
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