11th Biennale of Young Greek Architects – Thessaloniki

The Hellenic Institute of Architecture, as part of its activities to promote contemporary Greek architecture, announced a competition for the selection of works for the 11th Biennale of Young Greek Architects. The aim of the Biennale events, organized by the Institute every two years, is to gather a representative sample of the activities of young architects, to exhibit their works, to highlight new creators, and to facilitate the exchange of views regarding the development of architectural thought and the production of architectural work in Greece today.

The exhibition of the works of the 11th Biennale was presented at the Telloglou Foundation of Arts in Thessaloniki, co-organized with the Department of Architectural Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (A.U.Th.), from December 16, 2023, to January 14, 2024, alongside the publication of the related catalog. On the opening day of the exhibition, a symposium was held at the Telloglou Foundation, with invited members of the jury, aiming to present and critically analyze the works.

Members of the Jury for the 11th Biennale of Young Greek Architects were Anastasios Kotsiopoulos, Emeritus Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordinator), Anastasios Tellios, Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Konstantinos Moraitis, Emeritus Professor at the National Technical University of Athens, Morfo Papanikolaou, Architect at I.U.A.V., and Dimitris Thomopoulos, Associate Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Alternate members appointed were Stavros Gyftopoulos, Professor at the National Technical University of Athens, and Alkmene Paka, Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The Jury thoroughly examined the 165 submitted works and categorized them according to their quality into two groups, recognizing 42 of them with distinctions.

The large number of submitted projects and proposals allows for an extremely optimistic view of architectural creation and practice in Greece. In terms of scale and themes, renovations of urban and country houses dominate, as well as new country houses that, in some cases, accommodate tourism-related activities. Noteworthy is also the presence of landscape and urban redevelopment studies, usually outcomes of competitions that have not yet been implemented, while there is a limited presence of public buildings and studies of large scale or complexity. Regarding design ideas, clear influences belonging to the repertoire of the so-called “Greek New Modern” style stand out, characterized by clean geometric shapes, usually rectangular, with a “honest” appearance and correlation of structural elements and materials. However, there are also variations that may be due to the particularities of architectural education in different schools. Design choices such as the creation of partially buried (earth-sheltered) buildings, which seem to have gained preference among younger architects, should also be noted. It was also observed that advanced computational tools are widely used, although the full potential of these tools does not appear to be fully exploited in describing and supporting the transformation of the central idea from initial conception to the final project. In conclusion, the importance of the institution is once again emphasized for promoting the work of young architects and, by extension, for the role of new Greek architecture within the continuously and rapidly evolving forum of new ideas on the global architectural stage.

The exhibition was curated by Alkmene Paka, Professor at the Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Spyros Papadimitriou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Photographs © HIA / Department of Architecture AUTh

Exhibition duration: 16.12.2023 – 14.01.2024
Teloglion Foundation of Arts, AUTh
159A Agiou Dimitriou Street
546 36 Thessaloniki

With the financial support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.