AREA, Architecture Research Athens

29/05/2026

AREA was invited by Bimberg & Frenz to contribute a drawing to a collective exhibition on architecture as it appears on Euro banknotes. The design of banknotes currently includes fictional architectural fragments that do not refer to national monuments or specific authors but supposedly refer to “Ages and Styles of Europe”. Among the themes represented (Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque/Roccoco and Age of Iron and Glass), modern architecture has been conspicuously absent since the 500 Euro banknote was withdrawn in 2019. AREA’s response is titled “Refugee Settlement: Euro-funded Housing for the Unwanted” and refers to the ongoing refugee crisis and the kind of architecture that Europe reserves for the most vulnerable. 
 
Also shown: “Housing as Monument: In the face of Europe’s housing crisis, San Siro is reclaimed rather than demolished, transforming a monument of spectacle into infrastructure for living,” by (last image top); and “Adaptive Futures: Transform & Reuse. Reimagining existing architecture for a sustainable urban future” by .arquitectos (last image bottom). 
 
Many thanks to . The exhibition is on as part of the Architecture Curating Practice residency program at Rue des Tanneurs 139 in Brussels.  
 
 

05/05/2026

AREA was honored to be part of an amazing group of architects and scholars at Columbia GSAPP’s Kenneth Frampton Endowed Symposium: a conversation on the theme of recycling, repurposing, and re-use that took place through a discussion on projects with and by GSAPP faculty:  
 
Emanuel Admassu (GSAPP; AD-WO)
 
Andraos (GSAPP; WorkAC) .ac
 
Mimi Hoang (GSAPP; nArchitects)
 
Harold Fallon (GSAPP; AgwA)
 
Laurie Hawkinson (GSAPP; Smith-Miller + Hawkinson)
 
Nahyun Hwang (GSAPP; NHDM) .hwang
 
Jamaleddine (GSAPP; L.E.FT (http://l.e.ft/))
 
Dean Andrés Jaque (GSAPP; OFFPOLINN)
 
Christoph a. Kumpusch (GSAPP; Forward-slash (/))
 
Kaja Kuehl (GSAPP; youarethecity)
 
Jing Liu (GSAPP; SO-IL)
 
Adam Lubinsky (GSAPP; WXY)
 
Mireia Luzárraga (GSAPP; TAKK)
 
Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano (GSAPP; LOT-EK)
 
Robert Marino (GSAPP; Robert Marino Architects),  
 
Alessandro Orsini (GSAPP; Architensions)
 
Jorge Otero-Pailos (GSAPP; Otero Pailos Studio)
 
Michaeljohn Raftopoulos (GSAPP; AREA, Architecture Research Athens)
 
Rachely Rotem (GSAPP; MODU) .rotem
 
Karla Rothstein (GSAPP; latent)
 
Hilary Sample (GSAPP; MOS)
 
Galia Solomonoff (GSAPP: SAS)
 
Bernard Tschumi (GSAPP; Bernard Tschumi Architects) .tschumi
 
Marc Tsurumaki (GSAPP; LTL) and others. 
 

01/03/2026

Ευχαριστούμε την Η ΚΑΘΗΜΕΡΙΝΗ - Επίσημη σελίδα για την εκτενή αναφορά στο φιλόδοξο έργο RocktheBlock του δήμου Αιγάλεω στο οποίο έχουμε τη χαρά να συμμετέχουμε! Σύνδεσμος στα σχόλια:

02/11/2025

⁣⁣AREA is happy to have won 3rd prize ex aequo for “Porticos” in the open international Architecture Competition for Student Housing in Limassol, Cyprus.⠀
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AREA’s proposal draws from the vernacular spatial typology of the portico, or through-space connecting the street to the courtyard, to develop student housing that negotiates between the private and public lives of students while creating a building suited to its Mediterranean climate and context.⠀
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Each portico forms the living space of a single unit, with a balcony at one end and an open-air circulation corridor at the other. Exterior curtains arch out from the entry facade of each unit to create a small semi-private, semi-circular space in front of each portico. This space is enough for a small table and chairs, or a few plants, a bicycle, flip-flops, an art project, a cup of coffee or an umbrella. It is a threshold designed for appropriation, and above all a place to interact with neighbors. It negotiates the relationship of each resident to the outside world. ⠀
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Flanking each portico are solid, pill-shaped “organs” that act as walls and contain all of the life-functions that support daily patterns of sleeping, eating, organizing and hygiene. They consist of a set of densely packed “installations” that occupy the niches within each organ. The space of the bed becomes a cocoon. The only major apparatus left to float freely within the portico is a multi-use table on wheels, which serves various desires as it gets moved around the space.⠀
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It is the format of individual units that determines the shape of the building’s superstructure, which is a single residential unit thick. The building is thus thin, porous and layered, as it combines the ephemeral movement of shade structures and the breezy qualities of through-spaces with the solidity of the pill-shaped organs, which ‘anchor’ the building structurally and mechanically, and also provide thermal mass. ⠀
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01/08/2025

⁣AREA has just completed round two of the participatory design workshops that are part of Rock the Block, a pilot affordable housing program in Aigaleo, funded by the European Union and the European Urban Initiative / Innovative Actions. Residents of each building (10 total) were invited to use a model of their polykatoikia as a blank slate on which to note their desires, preferences and observations in blue ink. Architectural models were thus transformed into a kind of three-dimensional notebook, whereby ideas were transformed into text and line drawings, on their way to becoming spatialized.⠀
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Our program partners include ⠀
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23/04/2025

AREA won the first prize in an invited competition for “Cloud”, a three-story office building outside of Athens. Within a context of low-rise residential buildings and larger mixed-use buildings, “Cloud” foregrounds the relationship of indoor to outdoor space to create a Mediterranean office typology. An ultra-thin ribbon of interior space, 108 meters long by 6 meters wide, wraps itself around a central courtyard, such that virtually every space in the building has natural light on two sides. The outer skin is pleated and perforated in order to partially absorb the intense noise pollution from an adjacent highway, offer shade to South-facing windows, and modulate views to the surrounding context through controlled perforation. The inner skin, facing the courtyard, is a glass curtain wall that maximizes contact with the tall trees of the central courtyard. Both skins include operable windows, to maximize cross-ventilation and thermal comfort. The space of the courtyard itself is largely protected from environmental noise, and a water fountain at its core supplements the soundscape with the pleasures of running water. The building’s nebulous, cloud-like shape eliminates corners, so that the plan offers endless flexibility in the re-configuration of space, according to the changing needs of occupants. And instead of the conventional solid core of support spaces that usual occupy the middle of an office building, here the support spaces are dispersed around the outer periphery, forming bubble-like protrusions that do not compromise the clarity of the main space. From the outside, the “Cloud” offers a continuously varying elevation that adjusts to the various conditions surrounding the site, and its transparency shifts according to lighting conditions. Circulation is supplemented on the upper levels by two suspended glass bridges. Lastly, the planted roof takes advantage of the building’s shape to include a track for running or walking.⠀

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15/04/2025

⁣AREA is working on a house of nests in the Athens city center. One nest is on the roof, the “fifth façade”, which is in this case the primary façade, or principal encounter with the world. The nest is a planted room that accommodates the functions of everyday life en plein air. A home on top of a home. An experiment in partial exposure. We like to imagine that this nest could have been positioned on the Philopappos Hill, adjacent; but we also like to imagine that the hill will inhabit this nest by sending airborne visitors. ⠀
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We think back to the directive of Atelier 66: a roof should never be flat unless it is designed to be habitable. We also think forward to a possible future city, where the growing realization that climate is a threat is paired with the growing appreciation of climate as a resource. A nest is a space of shelter but also a new kind of ground from which to enjoy “the horizontal city”: a type of commons that we associate with Athens.⠀
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08/04/2025

Two is company: AREA is at work on two small guest houses on the island of Corfu. Arms linked, the structures are connected on one side by a continuous boundary wall that embraces an entry courtyard in the middle. The “open” end of the courtyard welcomes the footpaths that arrive at the structure by way of a verdant landscape. A simple typological study where outdoor space is a resource.⠀
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04/10/2024

Applications for Rock the Block open call can be submitted until October 31st.
Visit www.rocktheblock.gr/call for more info!

Ο Δήμος Αιγάλεω, καλεί ιδιοκτήτες, ενοικιαστές και διαχειριστές πολυκατοικιών που βρίσκονται στα διοικητικά όρια του Δήμου Αιγάλεω να υποβάλλουν ως εκπρόσωποι των πολυκατοικιών τους, αίτηση συμμετοχής στο έργο «Ολοκληρωμένα Συμμετοχικά Εργαλεία για μια Οικονομικά Προσιτή Κατοικία (Rock the Block) στο Δήμο Αιγάλεω».

Κατεβάστε την αναλυτική πρόσκληση στο www.rocktheblock.gr/call.

Η τελική επιλογή των πολυκατοικιών θα πραγματοποιηθεί ύστερα από αξιολόγηση από αρμόδια επιτροπή του Δήμου Αιγάλεω, η οποία θα λάβει χώρα σε δύο στάδια. Κάθε αίτηση θα αξιολογείται συγκριτικά έναντι προκαθορισμένων κριτηρίων.

📄 Υποβολή αιτήσεων μέχρι 31 Οκτωβρίου 2024

● 100% επιδότηση κόστους παρεμβάσεων με ανώτατο όριο τις 180.000 €
● Δυνατότητα ανάληψης της διαχείρισης των διαθέσιμων προς ενοικίαση ακινήτων των πολυκατοικιών (βλ. ενδεικτικά, εύρεση ενοικιαστών, σύναψη μισθωτηρίου συμβολαίου κ.ά.) από το Γραφείο Στέγασης του Δήμου Αιγάλεω.
● Πιστοποιητικό Ενεργειακής Απόδοσης

Περισσότερες πληροφορίες σχετικά με τη διαδικασία αξιολόγησης και επιλογής, τις προϋποθέσεις αλλά και τις δεσμεύσεις των ιδιοκτητών των πολυκατοικιών θα βρείτε στην αναλυτική Πρόσκληση του Δήμου Αιγάλεω στο www.rocktheblock.gr/call. Επίσης μπορείτε να ενημερωθείτε στην 5η ανοιχτή εκδήλωση του έργου που θα πραγματοποιηθεί στις 17 Οκτωβρίου στις 18:00 στο Κέντρο Ενίσχυσης Επιχειρηματικότητας του Δήμου Αιγάλεω, Θηβών 314 και Θεσσαλονίκης.

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Το έργο συγχρηματοδοτείται από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση και το European Urban Initiative 🇪🇺 Innovative Actions.

Εταίροι και Συνεργάτες: Δήμος Αιγάλεω Symbolo GP AREA, Architecture Research Athens Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης Οργάνωση Γη-Organization Earth Incommon urbana lab PANTEION UNIVERSITY - ΠΑΝΤΕΙΟ ΠΑΝΕΠΙΣΤΗΜΙΟ

📄 Υποβολή αιτήσεων μέχρι 31 Οκτωβρίου 2024 στο rocktheblock.gr

30/06/2024

Ευχαριστούμε την Δήμητρα Τριαντάφυλλου και την Καθημερινή για την κάλυψη του !

Το καινοτόμο πιλοτικό πρόγραμμα του δήμου, με την ονομασία Rock the Block, για την ανανέωση και ενεργειακή αναβάθμιση 10 τουλάχιστον πολυκατοικιών, με στόχο την προσιτή κα...