The 41 projects of GREAT 2013 exhibition "THEIR FIRST BUILDINGS"

20.5 - 9.6 2013
AT MEGARON ATHENS

THEIR FIRST
BUILDINGS

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Krimizi Sofia, Kyriakos Kyriakou

6 BCR (building code requirments)

2008

Undergraduate

National Techical University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Professor(s): Andreas Kourkoulas
Vana Xenou
Bouki Babalou

6BCR (six building code requirements) attempt to tell the story of the urban vernacular typology of the Athenian poly-katoikia (multi-habitat) in six episodes/ buildings. Inspired by this parametric adobe that builds Athens in its totality we identify and abstract a region starting from the mountains at the west of the metropolitan area- where the urban tissue frays and breaks up to scattered dwellings, passing by the dense downtown city center and after a 90 degrees turn leads up to the waterfront in the bay of Faliron, while crossing all the major infrastructural arteries. In this proclaimed sector we chose to develop six sites that bear a significance for the variations of the type but most importantly for the Zoning Building Code. Pushing the building legislation, sometimes to a breaking point, we made the argument that the specific building typology is more rooted to an Athenian urban culture and a developers’ omnipresent mentality rather that a result of the regulations or restrictions implemented by the code. We worked primarily within the medium of the architectural model, either in order to understand the urban conditions in these six very distinct neighborhoods, or as a massing tool that allowed us to investigate the notional solids described by the code; a morphological interpretation of different housing conditions and densities, while finally allowing us to re-insert our six reinvented typologies in the Athenian mass. Finally, the installation of the project in the thesis room was a reenactment of the zone we abstracted form the Athenian urban mass, trying to spatially organize the models in a sequence that referred back to the sequence of the neighborhoods themselves in the city.

CV

Sofia Krimizi studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens graduating with honors in 2008 and the Ecole National Superieure de Paris la Villete (Master I- Erasmus). She earned a post-graduate degree at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University in New York (Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design) having scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Foundation for Education and European Culture and the Goulandris Foundation. Sofia has worked for various offices including Steven Holl Architects in New York, Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris and Grafeio 405 Aris Zambikos in Athens before founding ksestudio with Kyriakos Kyriakou in Brooklyn-NY. She is currently teaching design studios as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. She recently received a research grant from NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts) and the Storefront for Art and Architecture the American Condominum Metabolism project with ksestudio. She has received numerous awards and mentions in international competitions and exhibited her work at the Museum of the City of New York, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the Benaki Museum, amongst other places.

Kyriakos Kyriakou studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens graduating in 2008 and the Ecole National Superieurede Paris la Villete (Master I - Erasmus). He earned a post-graduate degree at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University in New York (Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design) as a Themistocles Varangis scholar while winning the Kinne traveling fellowship. Kyriakos has worked for various offices including Ateliers SOA in Paris and ODA (Office for Design and Architecture) in New York as a project architect for the 100 Norfolk high rise. In 2009 he founded ksestudio in collaboration with Sofia Krimizi in Brooklyn-NY. He recently received a research grant from NYSCA (New York State Council of the Arts) and the Storefront for Art and Architecture the American Condominum Metabolism project with ksestudio. He has received numerous awards and mentions in international competitions and exhibited her work at the Museum of the City of New York, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the Benaki Museum, amongst other places.