Plásmata II: Ioannina | Metabolizing Urban Dynamics

Metabolizing Urban Dynamics: Hybrid Urban Design Approaches beyond Anthropocentric Aims
Monday 3 – Thursday 6 July 2023, 19:00-22:00

An exhibition of urban planning research projects in collaboration with the Department of Architectural Engineering of the University of Ioannina.

In the related research, the capacities for activating the extended dataset of urban and physical space in search for new directions in urban design, beyond conventional anthropocentric perspectives, are explored. With the city of Ioannina and the wider region of the basin and Lake Pamvotida at its core as its main points of reference, the natural and urban landscape is formulated as a united field where the human factor often exacerbates environmental crisis phenomena, with consequences for humans themselves.

The sustainability of a city presupposes compatibility between its urban activities and its eco-social framework, while this is further achieved by reciprocity, negotiations, and mutual concessions, rather than disjointed or linear treatments. These considerations summarize the theoretical basis of this pilot design research course under presentation, bearing as its theme the hybrid planning of urban and natural space through the “metabolizing” of those energies derived from the various elements that comprise it. The elements of the structured, semi-structured, and natural landscape are organized across the following thematic lines: (1) Biodiversity; (2) Building stock; (3) Water reserves; (4) Economy, production, tourism; (5) Landscape topography. Consequently, new relationships between man-made and natural elements emerge in the form of complex influences and cooperation within a broader ecosystem that hosts its members, along with humans, on an equal footing.

The approach is based on SWOT analyses (Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Opportunities/ Threats), as well as on dynamic processes of simulating natural and urban phenomena. It centers on the development mechanisms of urban and suburban landscapes, organically associated with their geographical, natural, and cultural background. The notion of “topos” is therefore reconstructed within a multidimensional system-field that supports occupations, economy, actions, and interconnections internally as well as externally, in the form of heterogeneous components that pose new challenges of an interdisciplinary impact and with regards to various scales in architectural and urban design.

Metabolizing Urban Dynamics
Thursday, July 6, 2023, 17:30 – 19:30

The exhibition “Metabolizing Urban Dynamics: Hybrid Urban Design Approaches beyond Anthropocentric Aims” is framed by a conference of discussions with the corresponding research as its point of departure, addressing, in addition, the themes of biosystematic design approaches, architecture beyond anthropocentric aims, research implications in academic education, the search for urban identity, the effects of the place and especially the lake and the landscape in shaping the lives of the residents of Ioannina.

Program

Welcome

• Anna Batistatou, Rector of the University of Ioannina
• Theodoros Matikas, Vice-Rector of the University of Ioannina, School of Engineering
• Prodromos Tsiavos, Head of Digital Development, Onassis Foundation

Introduction

• George Smyris, Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of Architecture, University of Ioannina

Presentation of the research subject by the lecturing team

• Yannis Zavoleas, Associate Professor, University of Ioannina & Faculty Member, University of New South Wales
• Karolos Galanos, Adjunct Professor, University of Ioannina
• Eleni Sionti, Adjunct Professor, University of Ioannina
• Apostolos Katsikis, Honorary Professor at the University of Ioannina, Teaching of Geography and Environmental Education

Presentation of participating architecture students
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Address by conference organizers and discussion with the audience