CCR_Athens_booklet_ EN2012_SARCHA

sarcha school of architecture for all

CCR: CityCommonResourceAthens_Gerani 2010-2012

A pilot studyby

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sarcha school of architecture for all

CCR: CityCommonResourceAthens_Gerani 2010-2012

A pilot studyby

CCR Athens Gerani 2010_Stage C working team

Following a series of open calls, a number of SARCHA associates have been involved in the various stages. The following associates and founding SARCHA members contributed to the final Stage C of the pilot study:

Dr. Maria Theodorou, architect, founding member and SARCHA director/ Petros Tsitnidis, architect, MSc environmental design and engineering/ Lina Liakou, architect, MSc urban design/ Clelia Thermou, architect, MSc urban design/ Theodoros Koulouris, mechanical engineer, MSc technology and education/ Constantina Theodorou, architect, film director/ Ioanna Pothou, architect, MSc urban design/ Phokion-Alexandros Stamatopoulos, software developer - researcher/ Angeliki Mitsolidou, Ph.D, Advocate, SARCHA legal committee / Panayiota Theofilatou, architect/ Irini Polidorou, MA environmental and sustainable development/ Thanassis Zervopoulos, electronic and computer engineer/ Stephanie Triantafyllou architecture student (AA) / Veta Gerliotou, architect/ Matenia Chatzigeorgiou, graphic designer

Joined the meetings and contributed to the programme at different stages:

Sotirios Manolkidis, Ph.D. European University Institute, Advocate, SARCHA legal committee / Iosif Efremidis, architect, planner/ Nicholas Anastasopoulos, architect, founding member of Non-profit “Tree”, lecturer National Technical University of Athens/ Elina Karanastasi, architect, lecturer Technical University of Crete/ Eleni Choremi, f. assistant professor Medical School-University of Athens, Immunology and Histocompatibility department director-Laiko Hospital, Athens/ Giorgos Tsirimokos, architect/ Adam Shapiro, artist/ Nikos Plevris, mechanical engineer, photographer/ Katerina Pitouli, architect/ Christoforos Romanos, architect, MSc Urban Design/ Stavroula Katsaouni, architecture student/ Theodoros Pitsilis, architecture student/ Georgia Alexandri, urban geographer/ Eirini Theofilatou, urban planner

POLYPOLIS 2011-12 working team

Following a series of open calls, the SARCHA associates who have initially contributed to the shaping of the Polypolis, joined forces to form an open team with all those interested to work together in the series of presentations/ public playing of the game in Greece and abroad:

Dr Maria Theodorou, architect/ Lina Liakou, architect MArch urban design/ Clelia Thermou, architect MArch urban design/ Ioanna Pothou, architect MArch urban design/ Petros Tsitnidis, architect-environmental engineering MSc/, Panagiota Theofilatou, architect MSc/ Veta Gerliotou, architect/ Elena Chantzis, architect/ Alexandros Kokkinos, artist/ Georgios Koulouris, Electric-Electronic engineer MEng/ Stephanie Triantafyllou, AA architecture student/ Marios Moros, architecture student/ Sappho Haralambous, policies for development -ex IFAD-UN/ Theodoros Koulouris, mechanical engineer/ Constantinos Maroulas, architect/ Eleni Chliova Bitzani, architect/ Sotirios Manolkidis, Ph.D. European University Institute- Advocate-SARCHA legal committee member/ Angeliki Mitsolidou, Ph.D, Advocate- SARCHA legal committee member/ Monika Skaltsa, Architect/ Alexis Oikonomidis, Journalist/ Irini Polidorou, MA environmental and sustainable development/ Julia Chryssostalis, Principal Lecturer,Co-Director, Westminster International Law and Theory Centre/ Jason Coleman, architect Lecturer at UCL MArch UD/ Nicholas Boyarsky, architect Lecturer at UCL MArch UD/ Dr Eugenia Fratzeskou, author- critic-educator/ Sofia Asteriadi, architect MA/ Camila Sotomayor, architect PhD candidate/ Konstantilenia Koulouri, AA architecture student/ Constantinos Miltiadis, architecture student/ Demetris Shammas, architect and a number of MArch UD, UCL students among which Judith Kelemen, Mitra Tafazolint, Lisa Hinderdael, Paulina Maneta, Zoe Spiliopoulou, Andi Schmied, Lieve Smout, Jack Pritchard.

SARCHA activities are supported by the members of the advisory board:

Dr Yannis Stavrakakis, Associate Professor, University of Thessaloniki / Kalliope Kontozoglou, architect, SARCHA advisory board member/ Andreas Phillipopoulos- Michalopoulos, International Law and Theory Center director, University of Westminster, London/Dr. Mark Dorrian, prof. of Architecture Research, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle, UK/ Dr. Ivana Wingham, architect, Senior Lecturer University of Brighton

and the members of the honorary committee:

Elia Zenghelis, prof. of Architecture, Berlage Insitute, Holland/ Costas Douzinas, prof of law, Vice Master and director, Birkbeck institute for the Humanities, University of London/ Christine Boyer, prof. of architecture and planning, Princeton University

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OMONIA SQUARE

In the CCR CityCommonResource: Athens_Gerani2010-2012 pilot study, SARCHA seeks to work out a framework of ‘nome’ for the rapidly deteriorating Athens city-center.

SARCHA’s research team worked in Gerani (a neighbourhood contained between Omonoia Square and Athinas, Euripidous, Epikourou and Peraios streets) from July to November 2010, exploring the urban accumulation of city resources. It collected data on people and their activities, buildings and un-built spaces, the area’s smells, natural ventilation and sunlight conditions. The data was classified in three categories - human, physical and natural resources - and transferred onto multilayered maps to facilitate complex searches.

The 243 buildings in the (10.9 Ha) area belong to more than 3.753 private owners and present a distinct vertical differentiation of uses: at street level there are retail shops and various services; in the middle floors are illegal retail stock, manufacturing, immigrant dormitories, office spaces; on top are flats and roof-slums. Drug addicts and homeless flank the street-arcades and the well-off live behind security gates.

Our Resources Reset Proposal aims to recombine the area’s building stock, human potential and manufacturing tradition with innovation to create a small scale production hub. To this end, SARCHA proposes the administration of resources ‘in common’ and puts forward the appropriate tools, such as the polypolis social game, for the active involvement of inhabitants and owners alike.

Non-profit, founded 2006; An open structure of associates linked by SARCHA’s website and activities. SARCHA is committed to identifying issues of concern within the field of architecture and city conditions, and to systematizing what appears to be a loose set of questions and research orientations among its associates and within a wide and diverse public. Its programme has developed as yearly themes, i.e. Unbuilt (2008), POLIS 21 – Xenophobia (2009), CCR: City Common Resource (2010-2011), Polypolis (2011-2012) Athens Travelers (2012). www.sarcha.gr

What – Where – Why - Who

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The so called Gerani neighborhood consists of 21 city blocks within an area of 10.9Ha situated in between Omonoia square, Athinas str., Euripidous str., Epikourou str. and Peraios str. The area presents an eerie complexity; the people and their activi-ties, the state of property, the building stock and unbuilt spaces, the natural and environmental conditions, the public health hazards, all shape the uneasy conditions of its everyday life.

As it is always the case, economic, social and political transfor-mations have visible effects on cities. The Gerani configuration bears testimony to the local history. Until the 80s’ the area was a clearly recognizable entity; it occupied a central location of Ath-ens, the capital of a ‘pretty much’ nationally homogeneous state. Similar to adjacent areas of the Omonoia square, Gerani was a point of entry for the postwar Greek immigrants who flooded the city to escape the countryside’s poverty conditions. Situated close to the central food market, it was an ideal place for job seekers. It soon became a reference point for the countryside people visiting Athens. As early as the 60’s, the area accom-modated workshops, small scale food stores and other activi-ties related to the city center. Printing shops, newspaper and magazine offices, lawyers’ offices, offices of countryside people associations, shoe and clothing manufacturing facilities and stores, a handful of middle class dwellings, coffee shops, hotels for the countryside people and brothels, all coexisted in the area.

This accumulation of activities is reflected even today in the density and the forms of multi–storey office buildings and ho-tels built in the frenzy of the 70’s. Traces of the area’s previous history were hastily bulldozered. It was only in the context of the 80’s building conservation policies that a number of mainly neoclassical buildings were listed by the Ministry of Culture and escaped demolition. The layers of ancient history – buried under the new constructions– can only be seen in the relevant excavation publications in which archeological objects are meticulously documented and classified. The very name of the area ‘Gerani’ recalls the area’s numerous ancient water wells; the term ‘gerani’ indicates the small water pumps, they once existed in Geraniou Street, hence the name of the street and of the area. Nevertheless, there is at least one architectural frag-

ment still visible in situ; a christianized ancient column built-in the small church of Saint John of the Column . (Sofokeous street, city block no 65016).

In the 90’s, the flow of immigrants initially form Albania, and later form other countries, find the state unprepared. The areas in proximity to the Omonoia square became once again a ‘destination’ area for the newcomers desperately seeking employment. Many of the postwar immigrants had by now upgraded their status and had moved elsewhere in the city and the suburbs. The newcomers could accommodate themselves in the empty buildings; Gerani became once again a point of reference for immigrants. As long as economic prosperity lasted, the presence of ‘foreigners’ acquired an “exotic” charac-ter; the area charmed the locals and attracted art galleries and ethnic restaurants and bars. Up to the Athens 2004 Olympics, optimism reigned supreme for the city center development. Neoliberalism preached a happy and wealthy future for every-one; its pillars for social peace based on multiculturalism and consensus were soon to get a hard blow.

In 2010 as the financial crisis was looming, the overwhelming presence of wretched immigrants in Gerani and other down run areas of the Athens center, has accelerated a process by which the lure of the ‘exotic’ was turned into the horror for the “Other”. The locals in awe were unable to confront the shatter-ing effects of humans turned into waste; for they already knew: the future was casting its shadow already, and was going to be a very dark one.

Nevertheless, the economic downturn and its manifold effects on human lives provide just the right context to refresh our mindsets. Every dead-end has an important side-effect; it triggers an inevitable reconsideration of its constitutive frame-work. In the 2010 setting, SARCHA could do nothing less than take up the challenge to re-think architecture’s relation to the economy by launching the CCR – ΠKΠ: CityCommonResource – ΠόληKοινόςΠόρος (2010-2011) research theme.

SARCHA’s associates were invited to think through the notion of

the city intended as a pool of resources such as buildings, open areas, infrastructure, human potential, the physical aspects of environment, etc. SARCHA was thus seeking to work out a framework of ‘nome’ for the rapidly deteriorating Athens city center by exploring the urban accumulation of resources and their administration in common , as a possible way out of its bleak state. In a series of associates’ meetings in Athens and London this proved to be a challenging and impossible task.

At that stage, it appeared that the only way to address the topic was to focus on the city center of Athens and implement a spe-cific pilot study. A proposal was drafted, entitled CCR (CityCom-monResource) Athens Gerani 2010 pilot study and attracted the interest of the Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change. In a series of open calls, a SARCHA mul-tidisciplinary team was formed. For five months, from July to November 2010, the SARCHA research team worked in Gerani, one of the most problematic areas in the center of Athens. “This was dirty, detailed, local, practical and largely unthrilling work” .

The team collected data on people and their activities, buildings and un-built spaces, the area’s smells and natural ventilation/sunlight conditions – all indicative of public health hazards. The data were classified in three main categories of city resources: human, physical and natural. Human resources data concerned ethnicities and activities. Natural resources covered the natural ventilation and smells, the sunlight, fauna, flora and micro-climate conditions of the area. Physical resources referred to two main entities: the built, which included all buildings, and the un-built areas. The later, included the rooftops, the com-mon grounds of buildings, building plots, arcades, sidewalks, streets, pedestrian streets and public squares.

There was a major difficulty in mapping the human, physical and natural resources; the methodologies used in social scienc-es, social anthropology, urban geography and urban design had to be combined to create appropriate mapping tools. However, the team took a different approach and decided to experiment by going back in time. Inventory cards were drafted for each cat-egory of resource and all entities were described exhaustively according to the well-known ten Aristotelian categories: Sub-stance - Quantity - Quality - Relation - Place - Time - Position – State - Action - Affection. The drafting of the cards was a nerve breaking exercise; nevertheless, it sharpened the observation abilities of the team as they strived to map extremely complex and fluid conditions. Video recordings and photographic material were also included in the inventory cards.

For strictly practical reasons, each researcher ‘adopted’ a city block and undertook the task to exhaustively map the three types of resources building by building, floor by floor. Given the hazardous conditions in the area, neither all buildings, nor all floors were accessible. In many cases, the information col-lected in situ, could not be accurate. When possible, data was cross-checked and complemented with information drawn from the Hellenic Cadastral areal maps, Google and Bing maps, etc. Once the data were collected they were transferred tnto multi-layered maps to facilitate complex searches.

The mapping process made the complexity of the area palpa-ble: The 243 buildings in the (10.9 Ha) area belong to more than 3.753 small scale property owners and present a distinct verti-cal differentiation of uses: at street level there are retail shops and various services; the middle floors contain illegal retail stock, manufacturing, immigrant dormitories, office spaces; on top are flats and roof-slums. Drug addicts and homeless flank the street-arcades and the well-off live behind security gates.

People of different ethnicities populate Gerani. However the maps made evident that three major ethnic groups have estab-lished activities in the ground floor of buildings. The Greeks, the Chinise and the Pakistani appear to create clusters/pockets of activities within the area.

The Greeks are the largest ethnic group, mainly shop owners and entrepreneurs. Although their commercial activity is in decline, they do not wish to move out but feel disappointed that no measures have been taken by the state for the area’s regen-eration. The second largest and expanding group is that of the Chinese; they don’t mingle with other ethnicities, nevertheless they sell cheap merchandise to Nigerians and thus sustain the Nigerians illegal street trade.

The area’s middle floors, once hosted small scale manufactur-ing facilities and offices; they have been transformed into illegal retail store rooms that don’t conform to hygienic and safety regulations. In Gerani’s narrow streets, large vans transfer merchandise from the Piraeus port, usually at nights. Since the demand for such store-rooms is high, it creates a paradox: it raises the cost of renting in a dilapidated area.

The effects of the network of criminal and illegal activities inside the seemingly deserted buildings and the incomprehen-sible difficulty to grab it down are visible in the streets: desper-ate homeless immigrant/asylum seekers that end up as drug

Architecture and economy: the CCR (CityCommonResource) Athens Gerani 2010-12 pilot study by SARCHA

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addicts and petty thieves and make the area inaccessible after dark. Sometimes they manage to pay and get a place to sleep/wash/eat at the illegal dormitories for immigrants that operate in the open plan middle floors of the buildings.

The third largest ethnic group is the Pakistanis. Their well established commercial activities are a point of reference for their compatriots. Since there isn’t a mosque officially in opera-tion in Athens, a large number of Muslims come to Gerani for their religious practice; spaces within existing buildings have been transformed to fulfill this function. In the narrow Geraniou Street, large gatherings of Muslim population that reach 700 male at times, overwhelm the locals. But so happens at So-fokleous street at the Soup kitchen provided by the church and the municipality; thousands of desperate people gather from all areas of Athens to get free meals twice a day.

In Gerani, the green areas are scarce and the smells in the streets overwhelming; no public toilets are provided and the number of homeless are on the increase. Public buildings con-stitute enclosed entities and have minor impact on improving the conditions in the area. Nevertheless, the presence of public services generates a feeling of ‘normality’ to inhabitants and visitors, at least during working hours.

The combination of high and deserted buildings, narrow streets and desperate people contributes to a feeling of disquieted. Illegal structures in inners courtyards, fenced arcades and inaccessible buildings add up to the experience of a dead-end state. Inadequate environmental conditions, (scarce sunlight & natural ventilation at the lower floors) and the use of air-condi-tioning, aggravate the microclimate of the area. Gerani evokes the sense of a trap to both its inhabitants and visitors.

However, at top floors the view of the city is exquisite, the sun-light and natural ventilation optimal; no wonder the well-off still buy in the area, even though they have to live behind security iron bars. The state of property ownership is extremely diverse; there is a case of a single city block owned by more than 500 small-scale owners. Even the thought of bringing them together to agree and plan a course of action for their own block sounds ‘utopian’.

The above brief description unfolds the complexities of Gerani. Once the mapping was over the SARCHA team had to face an even more difficult task: to formulate a set of proposals. In 2010, the regeneration proposal promoted by academics

and the state focused on emptying out the area of the existing population, bulldozing city blocks to create green spaces, to renovate street pavements and design a zone for pedestrians and cyclists. The plan was to transform the area into a trendy housing neighborhood for the youth that somehow would have to be lured to choose to inhabit it. That was an outdated model of regeneration. The youth was already plagued by unemploy-ment. The wave of youth anger that burst out in December 2008 had already turned into social unrest that was growing bigger by the day. The neoliberal tricks could not solve any of the city’s problems as the economic crises deepened.

The major challenge for SARCHA was to imaging a way of resetting the existing human, natural and physical resources, and work out a proposal that relates architecture to economy but goes beyond real estate investments. SARCHA’s Resources Reset Proposal aims to recombine the area’s building stock, human potential and manufacturing tradition with innova-tion, in order to create a small-scale production hub. SARCHA proposes the administration of resources ‘in common’ and puts forward appropriate tools for active involvement of inhabitants and owners alike. It thus advocates for a new model of city ‘sharing’ (nome), which unlike the case of a city managed by the experts, it has a potential to unfold a different relation between architecture and the city’s economy. It goes without saying that in order for any proposal to be effective, the desperate people that populate the streets should be supported with appropriate programs.

The proposed action is twofold; on the one hand it concerns the creation of the Gerani in Common and, on the other it focuses on the Gerani resources reset. The Gerani in Common develops in the form of two networks; the first deploys digital whereas the second spatial tools. The digital one aims at creating a Gera-niwiki: an open access territory (interactive website and WiFi) that keeps the inhabitants informed and allows them to update information and data related to the area. The spatial tool on the other hand, concerns the design of Res in Common: A network of public buildings’ ground floor spaces in conjunction with a grid of built and un-built areas to be used in common. This will make a network of accessible spaces with appropriate facili-ties that the inhabitants can use as they work out plans for the Gerani resources reset.

The Gerani resources reset aims to create a catalyst for a different economy that relates to and feeds into the existing hu-man, physical, natural city resources and enhances the area’s

present three-layered structure and the mixing of ethnicities and activities. To this end, the three layers of the area will be developed in the following way: layer 1- upper floors/ rooftops contains rooftop city-allotments (agro gerani) and housing; layer 2- middle upper floors is developed as a hub of innovative small-scale manufacturing that includes education, training, production and services facilities; and layer 3- ground floor/street level will become the site of welcome and help desks, market places and street life that is not just for the desperate. Mixed ethnicity is a requirement for all layers.

The submission of SARCHA’s proposal in 2010 was received with a strange indifference. Slowly but steadily and due to the deepening crisis, everyone understood the need for a produc-tion hub in the Gerani area, but still this is not a priority for the state authorities. The SARCHA team went a step further and devised a tool to make the inhabitants aware of their potential to transform the area. Polypolis game was conceived as a com-munication tool; by playing it, the CCR CityCommonResource experimental approach (the city intended as a pool of resources that can be reset and administered in common) can be appre-hended in a playful and straightforward manner.

On polypolis www.polypolis.sarcha.grPolypolis is a mind-shifting role-playing social game; It re-verses the logic of ‘monopoly’ of ‘one winner takes all’, adapts it specifically to the complex issues facing contemporary cities and experiments with different ways in which the common resources of the city can be held and mobilised in common by its inhabitants.

It entails negotiations among four different groups of players that strive to resolve complex issues related to the exist-ing human/physical/natural resources within city blocks. The players apply city-intervention tools to plan a course of action in selected city blocks and exchange their role-values (SARCHAnomisma) to involve all other players in the process. By doing so, they test the potential of the ‘in common’ admin-istration of city resources. To get winning points, proposed

actions should attain the agreement of co-players within a restrictive time frame.

The Polypolis game was initially conceived as a testing ground for SARCHA’s “CCR: CityCommonResource (2010-2011)” re-search theme and the “CCR Athens Gerani 2010” pilot study. As the current economic crisis hits a number of European coun-tries, Polypolis social game takes a life on its own; it uses a playful manner to train/educate city inhabitants to cope ‘in com-mon’ with issues that affect their life’s resources. In this context, SARCHA has started to develop and adapt the CCR approach in various city contexts and in other countries by producing specific editions of Polypolis. A local adaptation in Italy (Rome - Pigneto area), has been created and one in Thessaloniki-Greece is under way. Moreover the game has been played and present-ed in a number of venues in Greece and abroad. (see list below at the Polypolis page in this booklet).

Nevertheless Polypolis effectiveness as a communication and training tool will be tested by its impact on the implementa-tion of the “CCR Athens Gerani 2010” pilot study. SARCHA intent is to invite the Gerani inhabitants to play in their real life roles and discuss the reset of the area’s human, natural and physi-cal resources. They will be trained to practice methodically and effectively ‘bottom up’ actions to transform Gerani’s bleak conditions. They will thus contribute to a - slowly but steadily emerging in Athens but also elsewhere - new type of city ‘planning’aspired by the practice of what James Holston calls Insurgent Citizenship.

SARCHA submitted its proposal for the CCR –ΠΚΠ Athens Gerani 2010 pilot study and received the commission from the Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, energy and Climate Change (Com-mission fee: 15,000 euros before tax which were distributed to the members of the working team in accordance with their contribution to the study). All names of the multidisciplinary working team are listed at the end of the present booklet. The five months intense re-search was completed in November 2010 and officially presented to the public at the Conference ‘Another City is Possible’ at the Benaki Museum on November 15, 2011 (see presentation program and videos at http://sarcha-architecture.blogspot.com/2011/04/ccr-ath-ens-gerani-2010-presentation.html . The CCR - ΠKΠ Athens Gerani 2010 leaflet (in Greek) can be downloaded at http://www.sarcha.gr/Resources.aspx Selected material in English at http://sites.google.com/site/ccrpkpgerani2010

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humanresources

physical resources

ethnicities/activities the builtthe unbuilt:rooftop/unbuilt unit/arcadesidewalk/street/pedestrian street/square

natural resourcesnatural ventilation(smells)/sunlight/fauna/flora/microclimate

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Human Resources _Street gatherings

Sofokleous street

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Human Resources _Street gatherings

Sapfous street

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Human Resources _Street gatherings

Sapfous street

16 17Menandrou street

Human Resources _Street gatherings

18 19Epikourou street

Human Resources _ street gatherings at daytime

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Physical Resources _ unbuilt areas

Physical Resources _ unbuilt areas with illegally built common grounds

22 23Rooftops of the no 65015 city block (Socratous str., Evripidou str., Theatrou str.,and Diplari str.)

Physical Resources_unbuilt

24 25Geraniou street

65001: owners ≥214 65002: owners ≥122 65003: owners ≥20665004: owners ≥212 65005: owners ≥108 65006: owners ≥23265007: owners ≥469 65008: owners ≥596 65009: owners ≥17465010: owners ≥1 65011: owners ≥136 65012: owners ≥14665013: owners ≥1 65014: owners ≥182 65015: owners ≥99 65016: owners ≥104 65017: owners ≥224 65018: owners ≥365020: owners ≥267 65021: owners ≥136 65022: owners ≥121

Total number of owners in the area > 3.753

Physical Resources _ property

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26 27Inner courtyard at Menandrou and Sofokleous street

Natural Resources _ air flow diagram and street smells

28 29Sapfous sreet

Natural Resources _ sunlight diagram and green areas

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Photo-collage of the area’s typical building façades and interiors

Human Resources Activities/ Uses: housing, office spaces, unused empty spaces Ethnicities/ Users: Greeks mainly

Physical Resources Medium size flats & spaces Large number of flat rooftopsIllegal constructions on rooftopsCity views: unrestricted

Natural Resources Sunlight/ Natural Ventilation: adequate Green roofs: rare

LAYER 1: UPPER FLOORS/ ROOFTOPS

Human Resources Chinese and Greek storage spaces Greek workshops and small scale manufacturing Greek offices Refugee and Immigrant housing in spaces non appropriate for housing Unused empty spaces

Physical Resources Adaptable open plan spaces Small office spaces Lack of balconies City views: blocked

Natural Resources Sunlight/ Natural ventilation: limited

LAYER 2: MIDDLE UPPER FLOORS

LAYER 3: GROUND FLOOR/ STREET LEVEL

THE AREA IN NUMBERS

Human ResourcesGround floor Activities/ Uses: retail, services, unused empty spaces, storage spaces Ethnicities/ Users: mainly Greeks, Chinese, Pakistani

Street Large number of immigrants, homeless, drug users Criminal and illegal activities

Natural Resources Buildings Sunlight / Natural Ventilation:limited

Street Flora [trees, lawns]: rare Fauna: non-existent (with the exception of rats)

10900 square meters 21 city blocks 243 buildings 7 unbuilt sites 108 one to three-story buildings 88 eight to twelve-story buildings > 3753 owners 17 hotels 11 public buildings & services 54 listed buildings

GERANI: A THREE-LAYERED AREA

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DIGITAL TOOLS: G E R A N I W I K ICreation of a an open access territory (interactive web site and WiFi) SPATIAL TOOLS: RES IN C O M M O N Public buildings in conjunction with a grid of built and un-built spaces to be used in common

COMMUNICATION/TRAINING TOOL: POLYPOLISA mind-shifting role playing social game

A different economy that relates and adds up to the existing Human, Physical, Naturalcity resources and enhances the area’s present three-layered structure and the mixing of ethnicities and activities

LAYER 1: UPPER FLOORS/ ROOFTOPS Rooftops’ city-allotments (agro Gerani) and housing

LAYER 2: MIDDLE UPPER FLOORS A hub of innovative small scale manufacturing that includes education, training, production and services facilities

LAYER 3: GROUND FLOOR/ STREET LEVELWelcome and help desks, market placesStreet life that is not just for the desperate

M I X E D ethnicities at all LAYERS

GERANI IN COMMON P

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O N GERANI RESOURCES RESET TWO NETWORKS A CATALYST

STEP1: A network of built and unbuilt spaces in common use

STEP2: Resources Reset

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Already played at

• Polypolis_Gerani, with the Mayor of Athens in the role of the Polypolis Athens Mayor– Youth in Action EU program, Athens, Greece 9/6/2012

• Polypolis_Roma at the Urban transcripts workshops, University Roma 3, under the auspices of the Embassy of Greece in Rome - Rome, Italy 13-18/12

• Polypolis_Athens at Moraitis School - Athens, Greece, 12/10/2011

• Polypolis_Athens at the p-public festival - Chania, Greece, 6/6 2011

Already presented at

• Athens Biennale, Monodrome - Athens, Greece 4/12/2011

• «Public space – wanted» ΤΕΕ Conference – Thessaloniki, Greece 22/10/2011

Current

• Polypolis_Athens – Official participation of Greece at the British Council’s International Architecture and Design Showcase 2012, under the auspices of the Greek Embassy in London, London, UK 23 /3/ 2012

In preparation

• Polypolis_Thessaloniki –with the support of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece, October 2012

• Polypolis_Tainiothiki – Athens Greece, 2012

Under consideration

SARCHA seeks strategic partnerships to develop versions of Polypolis in different urban contexts and countries.

Polypolis_Frankfurt, Polypolis_Zurich, Polypolis_Dublin, Polypolis_ Rowanta…

It reverses the logic of ‘monopoly’ of ‘one winner takes all’,adapts it specifically to the complex issues facing contemporary cities and experiments with different ways in which the common resources of the city can be held and mobilised in common by its inhabitants. www.polypolis.sarcha.gr

Polypolis: A mind-shifting social game

POLYPOLIS presentations/game testing

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sarcha SARCHA (School of ARCHitecture for All) Non-profit, founded 2006: An open structure of globally connected committed associates linked by SARCHA’s website and activities. No subscription fee involved, all those who are interested are welcomed.

Not a group of friends SARCHA assembles individuals to work on matters of concern: SARCHA is committed to identifying issues of concern within the field of architecture and city conditions, and to systematizing what appears to be a loose set of questions and research orientations among its associates and within a wide and diverse public

Not an academic institution, SARCHA is a school of ignorants: Associates of various backgrounds- even the ones highly qualified; they do not simply apply their knowledge, but approach tasks at hand with inventiveness and resourcefulness, they seize every opportunity to experiment and share experience and knowledge

Not a subsidy-oriented functioning; SARCHA is a quarry and generator of resources: it plugs its network of associates, their skills, abilities, knowledge, technical and technological equipment, physical locations, into available institutional or independent structures, operational mechanism and devices to maximize the potential of humans, things, and processes involved

Not a cultural organisation, SARCHA focuses steadily on the political: It creates a quarry of available resources to bring things that matter into visibility and enforce change as an effect of its activity

SARCHA’s Backbone structure: Founding members+ Advisory board + Legal committee + Honorary committee: they have a say on every activity

SARCHA’s quarry of resources: Associates (support in knowledge, skills and work time) + Associaters (support in kind) + Associatems (financial support); they all inform and implement SARCHA’s programme

Hold up and communication structure : Web site www.sarcha.gr + Blog http://www.sarcha-architecture.blogspot.com/ + Public announcements

Process: The founding members initiated SARCHA but its associates inform its activity; Research programs develop as yearly themes that address pressing issues. These are: Unbuilt (2008), POLIS 21 – Xenophobia (2009), CCR: City Common Resource (2010-2011), Polypolis (2011-2012) Athens Travelers (2012).

What’s special about

sarcha school of architecture for all

2012www.sarcha.gr

Layout: Matenia ChatzigeorgiouCover image: Photo-collage of the area’s typical building interiors

© All materials, content and forms contained on this booklet are the intellectual property of SARCHA and may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or displayed without SARCHA’s

written permission [email protected]