In November 2015 ECOWEEK concluded in Thessaloniki, Greece the planned events to mark its 10-year anniversary. ECOWEEK 2015 events included international conferences and sustainable design workshops in Istanbul, Turkey, Prishtina, Kosovo, and Thessaloniki, Greece, an ecological festival in Cairns, Australia, a young designers’ competition in China, and a book with 50 articles by leading professionals and students on sustainable design and architecture.
ECOWEEK takes place in Thessaloniki, Greece for the third time, in cooperation with the Municipality of Thessaloniki, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the Technical Chamber of Greece. ECOWEEK was hosted by AKTO Design College in Thessaloniki.
ECOWEEK 2015 opened in Thessaloniki on Monday 2 November. Leading architects from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Kosovo, and Liechtenstein presented examples of good practices from Europe.
They served as inspiring models for the ECOWEEK workshops that engaged in sustainable proposals for the city. Nearly 200 young workshop participants – primarily Greek and German architecture students – had the privilege to learn not only how to design sustainable buildings and urban interventions in the city, but to go beyond the crisis and think of new paths to innovation, and entrepreneurship as well.
On the opening day, the screening of the film ‘The Secret Life of Materials’ (scroll down to watch the trailer) created by the EU program STIMULATE – explaining the application of nanotechnology solutions in products – was followed by a performance by violinist Konstantinos Pavlakos of the first ever 3-d printed violin featured in the film. The 13 ECOWEEK sustainable design workshops took place during the week, and presented on Saturday 7 November. The workshops spanned a diverse range of themes, reaching out to the local community in a variety of ways:
W1 led by architect Einar Jarmund from Norway, explored the use of wood and how to design a wooden installation in Thessaloniki.
W2 led by architects Prodromos Nikiforidis and Bernard Cuomo from Greece, explored the methodology and technologies for a sustainable upgrade of an existing public school in Thessaloniki.
W3 led by Dutch architects Michiel Smits and Gie Steenput addressed design solutions for transient housing to ease the refugee crisis in Thessaloniki, a city not far from the northern border of Greece. The intervention took place at Karatasios Park in the former army base PERKA, proposing solutions for the local community and collecting clothes and food for the refugees.
W4 led by Greek architects Natalia Pantelidou and Elias Messinas re-examined the HELEXPO exhibition grounds, to serve not only temporary trade shows, but as a connector between the adjacent university campus and the seafront, encouraging bicycle use, sustainable rainwater management, and the increase of open green spaces for public use as well.
W5 led by German architect Thomas Kauertz and engineer Anja Markwart used newspapers as building material, to construct an info point in front of the City Hall.
W6 led by architect and urban designer Johannes Peter Steidl from Liechtenstein, intervened in the neglected public open space of the YMCA Park next to the seafront. The concept – a white line of desire – is a straight path that invites pedestrians to visit the park, reusing and refurbishing an abandoned structure with recycled material. By the end of the workshop children from the area flooded the project, practicing and playing in the facilities.
W7 led by the Greek architecture team of Urban Soul Project and architect Argjira Krasniqi from Kosovo, took on the challenge of homelessness, a result of the recent financial crisis, and through design attempted to give sustainable and affordable solutions.
W8 led by Greek architect Antonis Semertsidis focused on the preliminary design of a much needed ski resort in the northern city of Vasilitsa, an attempt to boost the local economy in a sustainable manner. The proposed design included an athletic summer camp in Filippoi with the upgrade of the existing athletic facilities. This long term project, involving local authorities, professional advisers and consultants, and the local business community, will be further developed by an ECOWEEK GREENHOUSE team, led by Semertsidis and professionals from Greece and abroad.
W9 led by Dutch architect Martijn Schildkamp explored up-cycling of recycling materials, with the design exploration of an art installation out of randomly collected waste materials, and materials of consumption from daily life.
W10 led by Greek architects Ubu Plan re-evaluated sustainable design solutions for the area to the west of the city, alongside the main route and the railway lines to the port, used as a depot of the Thessaloniki train station. The depot grounds were transformed into an open space “tail network” of intensions and functions without a firm diagram. The design involved decontamination of the area soil, creating new landscape, an info pavilion, a new panoramic view point, an installation of transparent screens, and alternative eco-friendly energy sources.
W11 led by Greek architects 40.22 explored the unknown aspects of the city through the re-evaluation of an historic abandoned site on Ippodromiou street. The design proposal took into consideration the socio-economic conditions of the neighborhood and transformed it into a small park with a very flexible set of uses to serve the needs of the surrounding community.
W12 led by a team of the National Research Institute ‘Democritus’, the EU-funded program STIMULATE and KARD Architects, combined nanotechnology and sustainable design, towards the creation of a new roof tile with energy harvesting properties (photovoltaic and/or thermoelectric), increased thermal isolation, reduced weight, self-cleaning capabilities, and photocatlytic properties for air purification.
W13 led by Greek team of Sparch Architects, explored the space in-between, within the city. The workshop focused on the design and construction of a temporary living environment, a pavilion balancing between the sea and the sky, made out of collected waste materials.
ECOWEEK 2015 hosted an exhibition of the Joint Post Graduate Program of Studies in Landscape Architecture, the School of Architecture and School of Agriculture, Forestry & Natural Environments of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, titled: Sustainability in open public spaces. ECOWEEK 2015 in Thessaloniki was organized by Despoina Kouinoglou Agriculturist and graduate student in Landscape Architecture. ECOWEEK is a Greek-international NGO created by architect Elias Messinas in 2005 with the mission to raise environmental awareness and to promote the principles of sustainability. ECOWEEK is active in 15 countries and the ECOWEEK NET network has members in 54 countries.
Website: www.ecoweek.org
Contact: [email protected]
Cover image: ‘Umbrellas’ sculpture by George Zongolopoulos at the Nea Paralia in Thessaloniki, by Nikiforidis Cuomo Architects (Photographer: Prodromos Nikiforidis. Courtesy Nikiforidis Cuomo Architects)
ECOWEEK 2015 THESSALONIKI PRESENTATIONS (PHOTO: MARIA FOURTOUNI – COPYRIGHT: ECOWEEK 2015).
ECOWEEK 2015 IN-SITU INSTALLATION BY WORKSHOP W6 LED BY JOHANNES PETER STEIDL FROM LIECHTENSTEIN, BUILT A PARK INSTALLATION USING RECLAIMED AND RECYCLED MATERIALS, REVIVING PARTS OF THE PARK TO BE USED BY THE LOCAL COMMUNITY (PHOTO: JOHANNES PETER STEIDL – COPYRIGHT: ECOWEEK 2015).The Secret Life of Materials – Trailer
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