The Emergent Agency of the Urban

“The ‘open’ architectural ‘education’ structure of SARCHA, 

succeeded in pointing out 

the Emergent Agency of the Urban 

through its research programmes and projects in the crisis ridden Athens:  

Not an abstract container that accommodates conflicts and contradictions, the urban functions as an apparatus, a material device by which the recombination of human, non-human, technical, technological, organic, inorganic matter and matters produces new assemblages that continually reshape empirically and theoretically the conceptualization and understanding of our categorizations.” 

Concluding remarks by SARCHA’s speaker Dr Maria Theodorou 

in the “Athens Radical Futures?” Symposium

 organized by Penny Travlou and Tahl Kaminer and supported by the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape architecture (ESALA) and the Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh, 20.11.2014 http://www.sarcha-architecture.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/athens-radical-futures-symposium-sarcha.html   

Athens, Radical Futures? Symposium_ SARCHA@ the University of Edinburgh

On November 20 2014

the conceptual framework of the School of Architecture for All (SARCHA) will be presented though a number of its Research programmes and projects at the 

Athens, Radical Futures? symposium 

organized Penny Travlou and Tahl Kaminer 

The event is supported by the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape architecture (ESALA) and the Global Justice Academy, University of Edinburgh. 

See details at http://www.eca.ed.ac.uk/architecture-landscape-architecture/news-events/athens-radical-futures

POP_URB_A Horizon 2020 proposal in the making: SARCHA+European Humanities University

 Following the non-successful submission of RES_URB in the context of FP7 in 2013, SARCHA has recently been invited by the European Humanities University to work as a project partner and prepare a Horizon 2020 proposal to be submitted in May 2015. 

 The first meeting of partners in the form of an international workshop took place on November 2-3 2014 in Vilnius Lithuania.  

 Participating partners include:1.      Felix Ackermann, European Humanities University, Vilnius

2.      Allan Cochrane, Open University UK

3.      Ben Cope, European Humanities University, Vilnius

4.      Mary Dellenbaugh, Humboldt University, Berlin

5.      Lucie Galčanová, Masaryk University, Brno

6.      Tahl kaminer ESALA University of Edinburgh

7.      Maros Krivy, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn

8.      Miodrag Kuč, European Humanities University, Vilnius

9.      Siarhei Liubimau, European Humanities University, Vilnius

10.   Maja Momirov, University of Novy Sad

11.   Agnieszka Ogrodowczyk, University of Łódź

12.   Steve Pile, Open University, UK

13.   Marta Prista, Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (CRIA), Lisbon

14.   Maria Theodorou, School of Architecture for All (SARCHA), Athens GR

15.   Igor Tyshchenko, National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, Kyiv

A meeting of SARCHA’s working team will be planned in the UK in the forthcoming weeks to discuss organizational issues and the involvement of associates that might be interested to work on the proposal. 

More news on this blog soon.

NEAR: DEMOS entry in Milan

Some Good news for the http://www.neararchitecture.com/ NEAR architecture's entry in the DEMOS by SARCHA call for ideas www.demos.sarcha.gr

NEAR architecture

Our project for Plateia Kotzia in Athens, realized for "DemosbySarcha", has been selected to take part in the Itinerant Exhibition BLU "Building Landscape Urbanism" at the Politecnico of Milan, Sala Mostre Guido Nardi. The exhibition collects plural researches influenced (or not) by Landscape Urbanism that react to the inadequacy of traditional urban planning and design disciplines and that have been developed in Italy in recent years.

Nordic Encounters: DEMOS by SARCHA at Copenhagen

The DEMOS by SARCHA call for ideas was presented at the 

“Nordic Encounters: Travelling ideas about open space Design and Planning” 

World in Denmark  conference organized by the 

Research group for Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the 

Department of Geoscience - University of Copenhagen 

12–13 June 2014. 

SARCHA associate, Signe Sophie Bøggild, Art historian, MA, MPhil/Mag.art., research assistant at the University of Copenhagen was involved in the organization of the conference. 

Read all abstract of the conference at http://ign.ku.dk/world-in-denmark-2014/  

URBAN MONADS WIDE SHUT:QUASI-OBJECTS/QUASI-HUMANS - A presentation of the DEMOS by SARCHA in Athens

Dr Maria Theodorou accepted an invitation addressed by Kostis Papaioannou, chairman of the Hellenic League of Human Rights http://www.hlhr.gr/index.php?PageLang=greek and https://www.facebook.com/antiphono.kostispapaioannou?fref=ts to participate at a panel discussion on Conditions of Enclosure in the city of Athens. The event took place in Athens on May 2^nd 2014 and was organized in the context of the Onassis Foundation “Fast Forward Festival (FFF)” http://www.sgt.gr/gr/programme/event/1672

The invitation gave the opportunity to present a very unlikely place that enclosure indeed happens: the Athens Town Hall building (and especially its roof terrace) which embodies a type of municipal administration that remains detached from self –organizing initiatives while funding ‘fake’ bottom up activities; the latter do not disturb/challenge existing problematic conditions while keeping at bay the Athens inhabitants involvement with the administration of their city.  

The discussion was used to present for the first time in Athens, DEMOS by SARCHA. This is a project which invited architects and non-architects to think through and imaging/design the potential of self-administration of the city. DEMOS was initiated following invitation by the British Council and presented at the London Festival of Architecture in 2013 www.demos.sarcha.gr

SARCHA is seeking ways to continue and taking up the DEMOS project to the next stage. In this context DEMOS will be presented at a Conference in Copenhagen Denmark in June 13^th, 2014. 

SARCHA in Blueprint: The architect is no longer an isolated professional.

SARCHA features in Blueprint magazine, issue 332 January/February 2014.

 Gonzalo Herrero Delicado assembled a number of individual architects and architecture teams currently operating in Athens in his article on “Post World's End Architecture: Greece”. 

In such a collection of individuals, SARCHA sits uneasily, but the author makes it clear; the School of Architecture for All holds a case apart in his collection  “…[a] platform to share resources and experiences while learning with every project. The architect is no longer an isolated professional.” 

http://www.designcurial.com/news/post-worlds-end-architecture-greece-4177054/

Another architecture history is possible: MayDayRooms and SARCHA with the Leeds school of architecture first year students in London

Animated discussion on another type of architectural history 

over a warm communal soup

On February 6, 2014, the www.maydayrooms.org hosted a handful of SARCHA associates and first year students from the Leeds school of architecture, at their strategically placed headquarters at 88 Fleet Street in London.

 The maydayroom group offered a warm communal soup (with bread provided by SARCHA); their ‘archive with a cause’ (animating communal struggles material from over the world) was discussed with the students and the possibility of another education in architecture history as a way to apprehend and confront the ‘turbulent present’ was entertained. 

During the tour of the building, everyone had the ‘fleeting’ experience of ‘keep an eye’ on Goldman Sachs activities; for the maydayroom brick terrace overlooks the Goldman Sachs glass building across the street. 

The ‘fleeting’ experience of ‘keeping an eye’ on 

Goldman Sachs headquarters across the street.

Under the rain: peripateia in the radical history of 

 London printing around Fleet Street 

Under the rain, the visit concluded with a peripateia in the radical history of London printing around Fleet Street. 

A next visit to discuss the work of students and SARCHA associates is planned for June.

 Those who are interested in organizing this next visit and be involved in the thinking of another architecture history, please contact info@sarcha.gr in late April 2014.