Athens: The Latest Architecture and News

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Curated by Apostolis Artinos, the exhibit "The Minimum Structure" features a design for an urban hut by deltarchi | dragonas christopoulou architects. Citing the mid-19th century desire to escape the city, manifest in examples such as Martin Heidegger's hütte, Le Corbusier's cabanon and Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’avventura,” the firm has designed a structure to provide a spare space for meditation and peace among Athenian rooftops.

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Bloomberg Philanthropies has awarded its 2014 Mayors Challenge to Barcelona, selecting its plan to deal with the problems of an ageing population over the proposals of 20 other European cities shortlisted earlier this year. The award, developed to promote the most creative and transferable solutions to intractable social problems such as public health, unemployment and transportation, carries a €5 million prize for Barcelona to put toward implementing the plan. In addition, four runners-up - Athens, Kirklees, Stockholm and Warsaw - will also receive €1 million each for their own plans.

"To meet the biggest challenges of the 21st century, city leaders must think creatively and be unafraid to try new things – and the Mayors Challenge is designed to help them do that," said Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Read on after the break to learn more about the proposals of Barcelona and the four runners-up

The Architectural Association Visiting School in Athens, as part of the AI research agenda, has continued its investigations to challenge the static built environment with its 2014 installation entitled Kinetic Haze. The project investigates the possibilities of architectural modeling via scripting, digital fabrication, and large scale installations.

This year's investigation follows the theme of the previous year’s work entitled Cipher City: Recharged, in which the creation of complex form-making systems resulted in the discovery of interactive design patterns. Following their discoveries in 2013, students in this year’s program further investigated kinetic and interactive architecture in their new study entitled Revolutions. After a series of design ideas were developed by smaller groups of students, the teams collaborated to create the final prototype Kinetic Haze in less than five days. Read on after the break to learn more about the project.

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What would happen if a structure could transform in real‐time? AA Athens Visiting School embarks on its’ third cycle to address issues of change, adaptation and interaction in the design of an enclosed volume. In this time of social, economic, and environmental uncertainty, it's a quality for the built environment to regard transformation as a way of practice.

Revolutions have occurred through architectural history and vary widely in terms of design methods and fabrication techniques. Focusing on inspiring natural form‐finding techniques, AA Athens VS works towards producing a large‐scale interactive prototype that alters in real‐time the perception of interior space.

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