The workshop

This workshop is held in collaboration between the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) School of Architecture and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador ( PUCE),  Maestría en Diseño Urbano y Territorial (MDUT)/ Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Art, in Quito, Ecuador. Our workshop examines alternative planning procedures and strategies around the urban fabric in theory and in practice. More specifically it addresses the concepts of community, the commons and participation at various scales. Towards this direction we

  • participate in the reconstruction process of San José de Chamanga, a community hit by the April 16th earthquake. This is being done in concert with various other governmental and non-profit agents. It involves an overview of the various planning components and the design for the public space of Chamanga.  We co-organize a participatory process involving the Chamanga community members in jointly making decisions toward the design and plannng of their public space.
  • In this context, we also participate in the actual construction of a community space designed by Actuemos Ecuador and built with the use of bamboo, a extremely versatile and locally sourced material.

Our workshop coincides with  Habitat III .  This convergence  allows us the opportunity to operate at various scales which span issues which address the local and the global.

  • We have been charged to represent NTUA at the the UNI-Habitat meetings.
  • We organize a HIII Side Event which examines these same issues, the commons and partcipation at an entirely different scale and context.
  • Another goal of the workshop is the interaction with the city itself and the collaboration with various local agents, as well as the organization and diffusion of the laboratory outcome to a general public in the context of Habitat III. Thus, we are in contact with local projects, such as OPUS La Mariscal, and organize field visits to various spots of interest to the workshop’s themes.

Workshop student members: Anneta Giannaki & Sophia Athina Bartzoka