Community
community center
nikolitsi (preveza), greece
90m2 (970 sf)
design development
2020
role:
self-directed
design reviewed and developed with Alexandra Tsolou
Inspired by childhood memories of growing up in Nikolitsi, the stoa is an events and leisure centre complimenting Nikolitsi’s newly designed Platea. It is part of a village wide initiative to re-establish a centre and spark interest for this remote mountainous village.
Evolving the classical archetype of a programmed platform, the stoa defines the southern limits of Nikolitsi’s newly designed Platea acting as both an edge and an extension of the Platea’s terraced platforms. Memories of landscape extending through courtyards inspires the stoa’s ambiguity as to whether you are inside or outside and the linear arrangement of rooms recall vernacular dwelling arrangements in which all spaces had direct access to the courtyard. Although mostly open to one another, the spaces are expressed at a dwelling scale by its proportions, furniture, lighting, totems and rugs. The form is treated to a singular monolithic material highlighting its colonnade and light wells as architectural anchors. With its rose textured concrete and open plan, this pavilion is to become a bridge between Nikolitsi’s past and future, expressing its evolutionary desires to move forward.
exhibit A.o2: Stoa of Nikolitsi
sculpture in a sculpture park
Viseu, Portugal
2020
Winning Proposal
Built
role:
collaboration with
Signe Ferguson
Selected through an open competition, Our piece is quite literally a microphone into the home of a family of birds, a misplaced measure often overlooked. We propose a small incision into the earth, placing the user inside of the listening device, a gramophone of sorts, precisely directed at a vernacular birdhouse installed at the top of the trees. An object of mystery, and an echo chamber for nature, we hope that our sculpture houses not only curious users of the human form, but also nature, including the birds and plants. Too often, art is placed at the eye level, superseding the surroundings. In this case, the art is a gentle filter, exposing and projecting the surroundings, louder than before. The park is the true masterpiece. Listen.
exhibit I.02: Misplaced Measure
visitors center
tytjerk – netherlands
1 000 m2 (93 sf)
schematic
2012
role
designer while at while at Studio Maks
project led by juyna ishigami & marieke kums
The visitors center is part of a series of landscape and art interventions aimed at transforming the classical Vijversburg Park from an 1800s classical estate to a contemporary public space. Working under the Japanese architect Juyna Ishigami and the Dutch Architect Marieke Kums, the building was designed as three reaching arms towards different moments of the park, the building's path like expression congregates into a central events space two meters below the ground's surface. The central events space adds a layer of spatial complexity to the park - a new vantage point where you as a guest are placed at eye level with the adjacent lake, a humbling moment designed to bring you closer with nature.
A.06 visitors center
recreation center
villars-sur-ollon – switzerland
self-directed
competition
2019
role:
self-directed
What happens to a ski town without snow? This competition was launched by the city of Villars to re-imagine their leisure city as a reaction to global warming. My proposal removes an existing ice-rink and relocates a new multipurpose sports complex on top an existing swimming facility. By demolishing the existing ice rink and placing a green space in its place, the center of Villars allows nature to reclaim the oversized hardscape, bringing it closer to the themes of landscape. The façade of the new arena is retractable - allowing it to open and close to its elements, adding another level of flexibility. With the future of Villars uncertain, this facility aims to provide multiple scenarios of events, as it heads down a path of programmatic experimentation.
exhibit C.01: Uncertain Futures
Living Spaces
private villa remodel
athens, greece
800m2 (8 600 sf)
in-construction
2020
role:
self-directed
Prior to the construction boom of Athens in the 1950s, the city was a place reserved for many of the Aristocratic families of Greece. With the expansion of the middle class and densification of Athens from the 60s onwards, many of its "villa neighborhoods" shifted to the outskirts. Built in one of these neighborhoods in 2009, this home is an example of a typical modern Athenian Villa. Although very sculptural, the lack of a clear spatially defining idea led to the reimagination of the home as a ring of rooms pivoting around the ritual of water and bathing.
exhibit A.03: Waterfall house
residential tower
canada
16 258m2
(175 000 sf)
concept, schematic,
design develop
2017-2019
role
design lead while at Olson Kundig
project led by
Tom Kundig
When I first visited the site, my first reaction was “I’m tired of seeing Architects misplace buildings in the forest. For this site, we must design a forest building, not a city building."
Imagined as an amphitheater for its surroundings, the design combines aspirations of Los Angela's case study program along with the imagination of James Wine's High-rise of Houses drawings form the 1908s (which in turn is inspired by A.M. Walker drawings of 1909) . By stacking units that combine exterior walls on 3 1/2 of its 4 walls, this tower presents a new typology for living, one that encourages suburban dwellers to shift into a denser style of living.
A.05 forest tower
terrace
vancouver, canada
30m2 (322 sf)
built
2019
role:
self-directed
The relationship between grid and landscape is not so obvious. A grid represents order and control , a seemingly un-natural condition. Yet when manipulated, a stiff underlay can be transformed to represent an organic state.
The Design for this outdoor space uses a rotated grid to position a small wooden terrace at the intersection between the upper floor & lower. Its eastern corner exposed to the vegetation by the 45 degree rotation allows the natural environment to envelope the terrace. While the western pyramid used for reaching the upper floor and lounging appears as an inversion of the stairs to the pool terrace.
L.01 small landscape
deventer house
deventer – netherlands
120m2 (1 292 sf)
concept
2012
role:
designer while at studio maks
project led by
marieke kums
Designed and built within an adaptive re use industrial zone within the small town of Deventer, this small footprint home at only 60 m2 per floor was designed as a series of rooms.
The rooms are designed with the ability to either open up to one another or close off so that heating can be distributed only to the rooms in use and also for maximizing privacy within a very small area.
exhibit A.04: Small House
lakeside home
minneapolis, minnesota – usa
930m2 (10 000 sf)
schematic
2010
role
designer
while at architecture research office (ARO)
project led by
stephen cassell
Designed for an art collector, the re-design for this 1970s lake-side residence transforms an Italian revival into a contemporary summer house which doubles as a Modern Art Gallery.
Conceptually, the Gallery “ring” was to remain bright and minimalist while the four quarters anchored at the corners are treated to rich textures and colours - providing distinct identities, tailored to different programs.
A.04 large house
Objects
door handle
nikolitsi (preveza), greece
built
2015
role:
self-directed
door/handle built by local craftsman in the mountains of Greece.
The necessity for sharing facilities and ideas amongst young professionals sparks a design that provides service spaces such as workshops, print labs, meeting spaces and social spaces, woven together with a circulation network conducive for explorations and collaboration. Collaborative-based workplaces are intermittently injected into the already vibrant city blocks. It designs architecture within under-utilized voids, allowing Athens to make better use of its spaces and therefore become a much smarter urban center.At its heart is a new public space for the users of the city block. What was once rubble and an inefficient car park, is now a modern day reincarnation of an Ancient Greek Agora - a space at the intersection of streets and program.
P.01 Door Handle no01
Headquarters
new headquarters for Axel Springer's digital innovation
berlin – germany
82 140m2
(884 125 sf, inc
200 000 sf parking)
OMA
concept, schematic, design develop
2014-2015
role:
part of core design team while at OMA
responsible for inventing spaces, selecting materials, defining the circulation system, researching and exploring ideas on co-working and visualizing architecture through collage, models, diagrams, drawings
project led by
Rem Koolhaas
What if instead of preserving the park-space on the ground, you placed it on the roof? That was exactly our strategy for Axel Springer’s new Media Campus. By placing a public space on the roof of a private building, we’ve expanded the possibilities of a park. With the spaces in red illustrating the publicly accessible portions of the building. The threshold between public and private no longer stops at the door, but rather sandwiches the private office spaces by encroaching from below and above with spaces accessible by all.
Designed for the media house "Axel Springer", this building was built to mark the company's transition from print to digital media. Designed as an inversion to the Berlin wall that once divided the land it stands on, the building's oversized atrium symbolizes transparency, collaboration and an embracing of the future. The two halves are to be occupied by two distinct identities coming together - formal business minded entrepreneurs and the informal creative class.
exhibit A.04: Digital Valley
nike's center for innovation
portland, oregon – usa
64 475m2
(694 000sf, inc
300 000 sf parking)
olson kundig
concept, schem., design develop, const. docs, const. admin
2015-2019
role
designer while at Olson Kundig. Responsible for programing, led design for research labs, collaboration zones, feature stairs and coordination with consultants.
project led by
Tom Kundig
& Steven Rainville
Designed to house Nike’s creative class, this building will become home to over three-hundred designers with aims of designing and prototyping every single new piece of Nike’s footwear and apparel. The large linear atrium extends across the entire building, providing a linkage between all the departments. At either ends are the most experimental components of the building - cantilevered to the South is the Nike research lab, a gymnasium used to test prototypes while at the north terminus of the atrium is the concept creation lab, a prototyping lab to be used by shoe designers and clothing designers alike.
A.05 Nike
alto university masterplan
otonemi - finland
52 000m2
(560 000 sf)
competition
2012
role:
designer while at studio mak
project led by
marieke kums
Open spaces and buildings are designed not as individual objects, but as a unified whole on the scale of the Otaniemi area. Together they form a new type of landscape, a new type of environment in the central area of the Aalto Campus.
The new building(s) do not aim to compete with their natural and built surroundings, but try to merge, to blend in. The facades appear to merely consist of screens, separating in and exterior environments. These interior environments will be designed by different architects, creating different atmospheres and identities’, visible on the outside.
The gardens will be designed by different landscape architects; their character may vary between natural parks to urban plazas. A network of paths in is linked to the existing networks, creating a continuous fl ow of people on their way to classes, to their workplaces or on their way home.
M.01 Future Campus
Master Planning
Cultural Probes
urban regeneration workshop
Valga, Estonia
EASA Apathy Conference
(Postponed due to COVID)
2020
Winning Proposal
role:
co-tutor and collaboration with Henrique Garrido Pereira & Berenike Gregoor
“Behind the Curtain” is a winning proposal as a workshop for the 2020 EASA Estonia Architecture Festival. It seeks to discuss the relationship between physical and social barriers in our societies by constructing a memorial as a multifaceted metaphor for conditions and encounters that relate to an apathetic state of mind.
It reconstructs a recently demolished building out of fabric, drawing attention to boundaries between public domain and personal life. An installation aimed at stimulating conversations beyond curtained appearances.
exhibit T. 01: Analyzing Social & Physical Barriers
DESMOS - Design, Inventiveness and Collaboration in a Time of Crisis
M.Arch Thesis
Athens, Greece
Dalhousie University
supervisor, Diogo Burnay
advisors, Catherine Venart, Leon Katsepontes
2013
role:
masters thesis completed individually
developed in Halifax Canada with field research in Athens Greece
developed within a
course of 1 1/2 years
Desmos is a research project seeking to discover relationships between Athens' creative diversity and the role of collaboration in the road to economic stability. This study examined collective spaces and proposed a masterpaln which evolved the typical Athenian City Block towards a healthier and more collaborative community.
The rethinking of the city block involved complimenting existing private spaces with communal spaces such as workshops, print labs, meeting spaces and social spaces, woven together with a circulation network conducive for exploration, collaboration and cross contamination of ideas, knowledge and techniques.
At its heart is a new public space for the users of the city block. What was once rubble and an inefficient car park, is now a modern day reincarnation of an Ancient Greek Agora - a space at the intersection of streets and program.
exhibit T. 02: Collaborative City
architecture festival/workshop
"Ideal Cathedral"
Villars-sur-Ollon Switzerland
2020
Built
role:
EASA workshop participant
tutor
Claire Logos
Founded in 1981 by Architecture Students, EASA is a two week architectural education platform hosted by a different country each year. The festival attracts close to 600 young architects from across the world whom come to take part in community activities, conversations and workshops.
The 2020 chapter of EASA took place in Switzerland under the theme "Tourist" and Thanasis took part as a participant for the workshop Ideal Cathedral. Ideal Cathedral was equal parts theoretical, equal parts design build. Through a wooden sculpture and forced perspectives, Switzerland's iconic "Dents du Midi" were reimagined as perfect prisms in accordance to Viollet-le-Duc's principles of architectural composition.
T.03 ideal cathedral
hospice research studio
Botswana/South Africa
2011
role:
student
professor
Richard Kroeker
This summer research studio took 8 architecture students into the heart of Africa to invesitgate the importance of local culture. As part of the research, three weeks were invested in a design build project aimed to create a Pinagare, Setswana for the central element of a home - a place of gathering. Located on the site of Mochudi’s AIDs/HIV hospice in Botswana, the intent was two fold. Foremost to provide a public space for gathering around a central fire. Second, to explore the possibilities of thin shell construction as a viable construction method, which would utilize locally available building materials and local skilled labour.
T.03 hospice design
bridge design build
Quebec, Canada
2010
role:
student
professor
Morgan Carter
Built over the course of two weeks, the goal was to enrich a remote children’s camp in the forests in St. Saveur, just north of Montreal by introducing a link between two trails previously separated by a canal. Now through realization of the project, a continuous loop exists, enabling hikers, visitors and campers to experience the site in its entirety.
Going beyond a simple passage, a platform anchors the receding tip of the bridge to the landscape while generating a unique open “zone” in the wilderness, extending possibilities for gathering and dialogue amongst individuals & guides. A non-linear procession was established by the team, encouraging views to specific moments in the landscape, re-positioning the frame as you turn each corner. In terms of eco-sensitivity, natural untreated red cedar and stone collected from the site’s vicinity acted as the material palette, minimizing impact to the surrounding flora.
I.03 forest bridge