Social Housing Community

Design of a social housing community with principles of ecological design (architectural competition).

Available
Order: info@heliarch.gr
ISBN: 978-960-98072-4-1
Pages: 26
Dimensions: 24×28 cm
Edited by: Marianna Milioni

Foreword

The Hellenic Institute of Architecture launched the competition for the design of a Social Housing Community based on principles of ecological design with two main goals: Firstly, to offer primarily young architects the opportunity to explore ideas that would contribute to energy conservation in the most widespread building type in Greece – the residence; And secondly, to pursue the implementation of these ideas in practice, through a specific program of a public organization. Contrary to what usually happens with most architectural competitions, in this case the ideas would also be tested in practice.

Thus, with the generous sponsorship of Sika Hellas and the harmonious collaboration of the Workers’ Housing Organization (W.H.O.), the participants had the opportunity to design a residential complex on a designated W.H.O. site in the Municipality of Axios, following its specifications.

The large number of participants but more importantly, the originality of the submitted ideas proved that the principles of so-called bioclimatic architecture can serve as inspiration, rather than an obstacle, for creating noteworthy architectural proposals.

The committee was not swayed by the perhaps dogmatic demand for “ecological design” included in the competition brief, and instead evaluated the proposals based on broader architectural criteria, such as the architectural quality and functionality of the design. At the same time, a key criterion was the “feasibility of implementation” of the project by the Workers’ Housing Organization (W.H.O.).

I would like to thank the members of the judging committee, my colleagues Kyriakos Kyriakidis, Giorgos Manetas, Morpho Papanikolaou, Ilias Zacharopoulos, and Panagiotis Pasios for their well-substantiated evaluations and, of course, for the time they dedicated. Special thanks must be extended to Alexandros Tombazis and Professor Miltos Tzitzas, who coordinated the entire conduct of the competition on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Institute of Architecture (H.I.A.).

I also thank Katerina Yamalaki for the exhibition design, and the H.I.A. staff Marianna Milioni and Iro Foutrou for their overall support of the event and the editing of the publication.

Finally, I would like to thank the Workers’ Housing Organization for agreeing to collaborate with the Hellenic Institute of Architecture, as well as Sika Hellas and especially Spyros Chatzifotis without whose sponsorship this competition would not have been possible.
March 2011
Kalogeras, Architect, President of the H.I.A.