For Giannis Tsiomis

It is with great sadness that we learned of the unexpected passing of Giannis Tsiomis on Friday, October 19, in Paris. An architect and urban planner, emeritus professor at the School of Architecture Paris la-Villette and director of studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, he taught at many universities across Europe and America. For his extensive and internationally recognized teaching, architectural, and urban planning work, he was honored by the French Government and awarded in international architectural and urban competitions. Giannis Tsiomis tirelessly contributed to the expansion of architectural thought, offering both Greece and France, a pair of homelands he belonged to, a discourse firmly grounded in political thought and the historicity of concepts. His writings and research revealed a dual concern and continuous interest in the problems facing both international and Greek architecture. The fragmented urban space and the symbolic role of architecture prompted him to study the trajectories of ideas, cultures, peoples, as well as struggles, conflicts, and dominations. Notably, his study of Athens marked both the beginning and the end of his research career, from his doctoral dissertation to his latest publication Athènes à soi-même étrangère: Naissance d’une capitale néoclassique (Parenthèses, 2017). We will remember him through his own words: “We do not build ideas and concepts, but we build with ideas and concepts.”

 

Vasiliki Petridou