Overview
Urban Transcripts (UT) was born of a desire to create a new tool through which to explore the city as a complex phenomenon in a participatory and cross-disciplinary way. It was initiated in 2010 as an annual programme of events such as exhibitions, conferences, and workshops, focused on, and hosted in, a different city every year.
It started in Athens in 2010, with further events organised in Rome in 2011, and London in 2012. In 2013, Urban Transcripts shifted its activity from an annual event to a multitude of projects on the city. Currently, our work encompasses:
‐ Design: architecture and urban design projects and studies.
‐ Research: research on the city’s spatial and socioeconomic space.
– Events: exhibition, conferences, workshops and public events.
Since 2013 Urban transcripts has been working on a range of different kinds of participatory projects such as the “Volos in the Extremes” Urban Design Masterclass, the “Berlin Unlimited” festival, as well as research and design studies such as competition proposals for urban redevelopment schemes in different European cities.
UT’s collaborators are based in different countries in Europe and beyond, coming from professional practice, academia, research, and the creative industry. Within this international network, our projects are run by different per-project teams tailored to the specific needs of each project and its context; they are supported by a core team of directors and associates.
There are 5 directors in charge of different sectors: Yiorgos Papamanousakis as Managing director, Angeliki Zervou as Head of Operations, Jorge Lopez Foncea as Design director, Marcella Iannuzzi as Research Director and Sofia Xanthopoulou as Events Director. It is co-managed by .its members’ network; the right to become a member is granted to anyone who has worked in its projects.
Mission
UT’s central mission is the advancement and production of work that betters the city, improves the built environment, enhances the quality of life in it, and furthers the understanding of the city as a complex phenomenon. We aim to employ a synergy of disciplines and media to achieve it, as well as a corporate and working structure that advances a global-local network operation, bottom-up innovation, and public participation.
Service to the city
UT’s service to the city aims at the production of projects which respond to the urban challenges of the future, with a focus on achieving socio-economic sustainability through spatial design; they bring together the 3 key sectors of our activity: research on the city, public participation and community engagement, architecture and urban design. We aim to address urban challenges in a holistic approach: through research we identify the flaws in the urban process and propose viable alternatives, through public participation we engage the local community as a partner in the urban development process, through architectural and urban design we are able to work towards specific interventions in the urban fabric which, integrating both expert research and public participation, achieve long-term sustainable outcomes for the city and its citizens.
For current, future and past projects visit www.urbantranscripts.org .and keep updated through our social media pages at www.facebook.com/urbantranscripts and twitter.com/UrbanTweeting.
