The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

Begins	6 May 2009 - 5:00pm
Ends	6 May 2009 - 7:00pm
Location	TBD

IOANNA THEOCHAROPOULOU: MODERN ARCHITECTURE WITHOUT ARCHITECTS: ATHENS 1949-1974

Parsons The New School for Design
School of Design Strategies
Lecture Series on Cities, Services, and Ecosystems

Date/Time: Wednesday, May 6, 5-7pm
Location: TBD

 

Ioanna Theocharopoulou holds degrees in Architecture from the Architectural Association in London (AA Dipl.), and from Columbia University (MSc AAD). She received her Ph.D. degree in 2007 from Columbia University. Her dissertation, "Urbanization and the Emergence of the Polykatoikìa. Habitat and Identity, Athens 1830-1974" explored the historical proliferation of informal urban development and tried to construct intellectual tools for analysis. Her most recent research and teaching focuses on issues of urbanization and sustainability as well as on the history and theory of sustainable design. She teaches at Columbia University, where In October 2008 she curated ECOGRAM: The Sustainability Question conference with (Mitchell Joachim).

Cities are only marginally the result of architects' and planners' visions or interventions. Countless urban landscapes have historically been informally produced both in the "developed" and "developing" world. They rarely appear in architectural histories, but they nevertheless suggest another history, one that remains outside the central concerns of the discipline. Post-World War II Athens is a particularly striking example of a city primarily composed of unplanned and often illegal buildings. The Athenian polykatoikìa (poly = multi, katoikia= dwelling) was produced rapidly in response to internal migration in the early decades of the post war period. It has been endlessly criticized for being haphazard, unsightly and the cause of urban chaos. This talk will develop what I see as some positive aspects of polykatoikìa urbanism within the specific cultural and historical context of Athens, and will try to open up the question of the methodological analysis of this fascinating and widespread urban phenomenon.