Prodromos Nikiforidis – Bernard Cuomo

The Hellenic Institute of Architecture organized a new series of lectures by Greek architects titled “HIA Lectures 2005–2006”. The aim of this series was to broaden public awareness and understanding of the work of architects. To this end, prominent professionals were selected and invited to share their views on Greek architecture and present their own work.

Greek architecture today remains a subject of ongoing inquiry. Several issues continue to shape and, at times, hinder its development: the processes surrounding professional practice, the limited implementation of architectural competitions, the relationship between architecture and the broader economic realities of the country, the role and potential of construction technology, the gradual transformation of architects into executors of pre-determined choices made by construction companies, the legacy of the Olympic projects, architecture’s relationship with society, the problematic role of Greece’s artistic architectural and urban tradition, the relationship between contemporary architecture and the realities of Greek cities, the issue of architectural education, the connection between Greek and international architecture, the lack of a coherent strategy for promoting architecture both within Greece and abroad, and the role of architectural criticism. These are issues that often do not support design research itself nor the development of the overall quality of architectural work.
Architecture in Greece today still raises questions that remain unanswered—questions that have already been addressed not only in the West but also in many countries of the so-called “Third World.”

The Hellenic Institute of Architecture’s lecture series aimed to address these questions. The architects invited, many of whom belong to the younger generation, sought both to express theoretical positions on these matters and to articulate the principles that underpin their own personal design philosophy within the context of the built environment.

“The New Waterfront of Thessaloniki: Water and the Shaping of Public Space in the Society of the Spectacle”

PRODROMOS NIKIFORIDIS

He was born in Heraklion, Crete. He studied Architecture in Toulouse, industrial design in Paris, and completed postgraduate studies in Cultural History at Toulouse le Mirail and Urban Planning at the Sorbonne. In 1996, he began a collaboration with Bernard Cuomo based in Thessaloniki.

BERNARD CUOMO

He was born in Algeria, which was a French colony. He studied architecture in France, at the schools in Toulouse and Paris. In 1996, he began a collaboration with Prodromos Nikiforidis based in Thessaloniki.

Their architectural firm won the 1st Prize at Europan in 1991, followed by many other awards in pan-European and international competitions. These include the 1st Prize in the International Competition for the Redesign of the Monumental Axis of Aristotelous in 1997, the 1st Prize in the competition for the Redevelopment of the New Waterfront of Thessaloniki in 2000, and the 1st Prize in the competition for the Academy of Letters and Culture of Kalamaria in 2003.

“For the New Waterfront of Thessaloniki”

The New Waterfront of Thessaloniki has never been a degraded or isolated part of the city with abandoned uses. On the contrary, it has always been an area that attracted qualities important to the city and was integrated into daily life, mainly hosting walking and recreational activities. It is a linear space with limited depth and great length, which gives it the precise characteristics of a “front,” a thin shell that develops along the provocative boundary between land and sea, between the natural and the constructed landscape. Design along this boundary must coexist and engage with the watery element—that is, nature in its most unstable form. Especially, the marine backdrop of Thessaloniki Bay constitutes an amazing setting, where the ephemeral and the mutable are the dominant elements. Any intervention in this backdrop takes on its color and exists because of it; it cannot compete with it but must coexist and gain some of its tireless brilliance.