Architectural making in (the) crisis Research programm
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Research programm
Architectural making in (the) crisis Ioannis Oikonomou, Grigorios Vegliris
Our thoughts could be synopsized in one question: Is it possible that the Greek crisis, catastrophic as it may be, is also the detonator of an unpredictable burst of creativity? Since the radical reduction of the construction activity, we have noticed a steady rise in the participation in architectural competitions. We could safely say that during crisis the architectural competition has become a much more desirable process. We could say in confidence that the Greek architectural offices have began to show an interest which before the crisis was channeled elsewhere. In order to understand the mechanism behind this peculiar reality one must take under consideration the character of work of the majority of the architectural offices in Greece. Unfortunately architecture in Greece is based on the production of private space. Private residences along with a unique form of collective housing have dominated the architectural profession simply because of their high earnings. In this field of activity architects were not alone. The civil engineers as well as the majority of the other engineer specialties had also been given the right
to participate in that construction activity. This way professionals who had not been trained on the formation of the city have been participating for decades in the production of small scale private space. The characteristics of that building activity created a real mentality among the Greek middle class which was seduced by the feasible prospect of home ownership. That mentality was mixed with the ignorance of the professionals creating an opportunistic reality in which all the needs of the city could be sacrificed for the mass production of private space. The problem of this reality is that it is based on the powers of greek middle class which at the moment is suffering most of the burden. Subsequently architectural offices have lost most of their clients simply because those clients are no longer in the position to make plans for the future. And you cannot make plans for a house if there are no plans for a future. In reality what happened was that the crisis has taken away from the architects a very big part of their private commissions. Commissions, which in the past have made them turn their back to the
problems of the city. We could say that the crisis is steadily eliminating the temptations, which in the past had led Greek architects towards their participation in an uncontrollable construction activity which made them accessories in the degradation of the city. Now that all those diversions one after another are gradually disappearing greek architects seem to rediscover architectural competitions as an alternative way of dealing with the shortage of work. Offices, which were too busy with the design of private residences and their bureaucratic details are now, finally, investing their resources in an activity which concerns the city. It might be truly bizarre as a sight, it might even strikes as a tragic irony but Greek architects, through the destruction of all they knew until know, they seem to claim back their self-evident role.
Pile of architectural propositions sent for the design of a square in city of Kozani-Greece (over a 100 packages arrived) http://www.tharos.gr/politics/42-news/2248-2010-09-07-11-43-17.html
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