New architecture turns fiction into
fact
Greek designer puts Lebanese
students to the environmental test
Christina Foerch
Special to The Daily Star
The design looks like a grand chessboard floating in
water. It’s actually a public square, designed by Thanos
N. Stasinopoulos, and may be built in Athens.
The
design’s illustrations were exhibited at Notre Dame
University (NDU) along with other plans by the Greek
architect two family houses.
What makes them
differ from the mold isn’t their innovative designs, as
much as that the three projects are environmentally
sustainable. Internal cooling and heating are achieved
through natural energies: sun, water,
wind.
Stasinopoulos specialized in bioclimatic
architecture and environmental design and as such, he
presented a lecture at NDU last Monday entitled
Function, Friction and Fiction Environmental
Crisis in Architecture Education.
Starting off in
1773, he examined the recent past, the present state of
the world, and drew different scenarios for the near
future. His main focus was the role of architects and
designers and their potential to make life on the planet
sustainable for future generations.
“In architecture,
attention is drawn to the monumental past, rather than
to popular housing,” he said. This is unfortunate, in
his opinion, as some valid ideas could be drawn from
popular housing concepts of past centuries. “People had
no other choice than living in a sustainable way,” he
explained.
Not only the past but also the future is
not properly examined, according to Stasinopoulos, who
teaches at the Technical University of Athens. Old
concepts are still taught, “although the architecture
students of today will have to deal with very different
problems tomorrow.”
In 1973 Stasinopoulos was a
student of architecture, an era that he called
“function.” He recalled the spirit of optimism
prevailing in the 70s: “Europe was under reconstruction,
and the star (architects) of modernism were still
alive.” The modernist concept for architecture was clear
form follows function.
“We didn’t care about
the environment it wasn’t an issue for design at
that time,” he recalled. Only after the oil crisis, when
petrol prices increased tenfold, a consciousness of
environmental issues arose. Governments had to worry
about energy efficiency, while the negative consequences
of growth like pollution and the depletion of resources
became apparent for the first time.
“The schools of
architecture started to introduce environmental issues
and low-tech design but mainstream architecture
went the opposite way,” Stasinopoulos said. The
principles of modernism had become invalid, whereas
image, style and originality were created for their own
sake.
In the 80s, architecture entered a crisis,
according to the professor. “They were a recycled past,
without new ideas.” Furthermore, the role of mass media
influenced people’s lives severely. The evolution of the
computer, and with it the possibilities of virtual
architecture, led to an era which Stasinopoulos called
“fiction.”
“Reason was replaced by impression, and
function by fiction,” he said.
Next, apparently,
comes the “friction era.” The future 30 years will bring
“another electronic revolution, but a still greater
ecological crisis,” predicts Stasinopoulos. “The
environment will go beyond the individual’s enrichment
of life,” meaning that the conservation of the
environment will become a necessity for the survival of
humanity.
Oil resources will disappear in 40-50
years, which will affect industry and agriculture;
irrigation water will become scarce, waste disposal
difficult, desertification increasing due to global
warming, and two-thirds of the world population will
live in crowded and polluted cities.
However, most
architects remain unaware of these alarming data trends,
he said.
“With our addiction to contemporary dolce
vita (good life), we think that the Titanic will not
sink, we don’t see the icebergs approaching,” the
architect insisted and warned: “Endless economic growth
is not possible with ending natural resources. The
contemporary prosperity is based on credit the
bank of nature is currently overdrawn, and we have no
clue how to pay back our depts.”
Reducing the impact
of technology on the environment is the only viable way
ahead for Stasinopoulos. “We need a radical
reorganization of production and consumption, instead of
waiting for scientific miracles,” he stressed. For
architects, this means becoming active in the planning
process of urban development and looking for technical
improvements in the construction of
buildings.
Stasinopoulos’ architecture and design
projects reflect his thoughts on sustainable
development. Two of the three projects shown in the
exhibition at NDU were recently built.
With the
design of the public square in Athens, Stasinopoulos
strives to improve the area from a social,
environmental, and aesthetic point of view through
upgrading it as a commerce and leisure hub.
Adjacent
streets are converted into pedestrian zones. The water,
which almost encloses the square, would improve the
climate of this particularly dry and hot area of the
city.
“The water applications are a natural cooling
system and vegetation support,” he writes.
Rainwater
is collected and introduced into the surface water
network.
A workshop Stasinopoulos conducted for
students at NDU focused on different areas in Jounieh,
including the area around the stadium, the sea front and
the area surrounding the municipality. The students’
task was to confront the current problems of parking,
the lack of pedestrian zones, and other environmental
problems.
Students used a combination of techniques
to provide viable, environmentally sustainable
solutions: An underground parking lot was designed, the
sea-front street converted into a pedestrian zone, water
ways were added through the streets, and the greenery of
the streets was increased to cool the summer’s heat.
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