The Greek City of Edessa: Search for a Sustainable Future
GSD 1401, Fall 2009

Edessa, a small historic town in northern Greece, faces an uncertain future. Its potential to regenerate diminishes as they lose their young population to the larger cities. Its economy has dwindled over many years due to the disappearance of their textile industry. The waterfalls that have powered it still attracts some tourism, but this is limited. Furthermore, wrong planning decisions, by today's standards, and questionable architecture have transformed Edessa like any other town in Greece. On the other hand, Edessa has an unusual and beautiful natural environment: pristine wetlands, a river that passes through the town leading to spectacular waterfalls and many green and open areas, all of which are unusual for the region.

Addressing the issues faced by Edessa and with the support of the Mayor and the City Council, the studio has a series of objectives. The overall objective is to address sustainability at the environmental level and propose developments that enhance nature and take into account the well-being of future generations. Within the umbrella of environmental sustainability, the studio will initially propose to the municipality an overall business development plan, aiming in revitalizing the economy and giving a character to the city, thereby hoping to reposition Edessa at the regional and metropolitan scales. The individual projects will then originate focusing on:

1. the design of the 3 km long, 1 km wide green belt along the river between the village of Agras and Edessa. This area has few external constraints and no buildings.

2. the design of the waterfalls area and the reutilization of the old water-mill factory and the relics of the water basins that had been developed by the National Electric Company for energy production.

3. the design of public buildings and spaces in the town of Edessa, incorporating water and aiming to enhance civic life. These projects should look at buildings as part of a general development plan, contributing to the life of the city.

The projects will include overall development plans as well as physical design for specific areas within the overall plan. The common thread of the projects should be in providing quality of life and making Edessa a desirable city to live, especially as we enter the 21st century when communications change the way we live and promote different working, educational, and entertainment patterns. Additionally, the high speed train will shorten the distance to the regional metropolis of Thessaloniki to 30 minutes, effectively making Edessa a suburb-a possible positive but with the danger of becoming a bedroom community.

The studio will be co-taught by Professors Martha Schwartz and Spiro Pollalis who bring complementing skills and backgrounds to the studio and approach design at different scales.

The studio is funded by the City of Edessa and the Zofnass Program for Sustainability and includes a week-long field trip to Edessa and northern Greece, where we will meet with the local authorities, design professionals and faculty and students of the University of Thessaloniki.

After the Fires: Proposals for the Formation of Space
Department of Architecture, University of Patras 
with the participation of Master in Architecture students from the Department of Architecture, Harvard GSD, Fall 2007

The fires of last summer in Greece were devastating. Among the worst hit was the municipality of Zaharo, in the prefecture of Ilia in the Peloponese. People lost their lives and huge areas of pristine forests, agricultural land and many houses in mountain villages were destroyed.

The response for help has been extraordinary. The Greek people have donated money and goods. International help is on its way. Wealthy individuals have pledged to restore houses to their prior condition. Cyprus has pledged to rebuild a village.

Facing this situation, a dilemma rises: should the villages be rebuilt the way they were, or should be redesigned to meet today’s needs and reach higher standards? Is there a role for designers to intervene?

The position of the studio is that the villages and the houses must be redesigned and the destruction should be used to create something better. Architecture and urban design have a central role in the reconstruction. Along these lines, the studio will undertake two tasks: redevelop the village of Rodina and develop a new village in an area to be selected to relocate villagers from Lepreos where houses are in danger of landslides as a result of the fires. Both Rodina and Lepreos are in the municipality of Zaharo.

The process will include visits to the sites, detailed discussions with the villagers, and attention to the economic production and the restoration of the vegetation and the farmlands. The emphasis will be both on the public spaces and the residences, as well as on today’s amenities and the presence of cars and motorcycles in today’s villages. There will be a dialog between the 2 parts of the project: the upgrading of the existing village and the new one, comparing the challenges in each case.

As part of the studio, we will visit the villages, walk the sites and stay overnight in the area. We will also work remotely with the Harvard students and the reviews should be digital to facilitate attendance on the other side of the Atlantic. Computer modeling will not be taught and is not required but it will be very welcomed. Each student is expected to work individually, however, the designs could complement each other. It is the aim of the studio to make a publication, both hard copy and digital.

publication in PDF with student work

Harvard in Cyprus
GSD 1309, Fall 2005

Assisted by Michael Cosmas, MAUD'00, architect, Nicosia, Cyprus

publication in PDF with student work

The Harvard School of Public Health has established the Cyprus International Institute (CII) to conduct research, and offer instruction both to full time students and as continuing education. Harvard faculty and students will frequently reside in Cyprus [http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cyprus].

CII must establish its own facilities by December 2008, according to the agreement between the government of Cyprus and Harvard.

This studio focuses on the design of the new CII facilities, based on the following premises:

• the facilities will house CII's institutional program of approximately 30,000 sqft, to reach 100,000 sqft for 250 people within 10 years,
   
• they should generate a sense of "community," serving permanent and transient members from different parts of the world, while being continuously "connected" to the Boston campus, as CII is an official satellite facility of Harvard and
   
• they should be sustainable, developing an architecture that is in dialogue with both the setting and the region while reflecting the image of an Institute devoted to environmental issues and public health.

The setting for the new facilities is on the waterfront, on the south coast of the island. The Harvard facilities will be the cornerstone of a technological park for applied research that is currently under planning by the local authorities.

The studio is sponsored through the agreement of the government of Cyprus and the Harvard School of Public Health. It includes a trip to Cyprus in October, where the studio will relocate to the current facilities of CII in Nicosia. During the trip, the studio visits the site, conduct a series of meetings with the authorities and architects, and have a charrette and review. During the trip, students may attend some GSD courses through videoconferencing. The work of the students and essays on the main research issues is presented in a publication that may serve as the basis for an international open architectural competition.

A Bridge and a Pavilion in Bilbao
GSD 1305, Fall 2004

publication in PDF with student work

The studio focuses on the design of a pedestrian bridge and a pavilion in Bilbao, Spain. The pedestrian bridge crosses the Ria del Bilbao River and links the University of Deusto with the museum area. The pavilion, located at the museum side, will house a permanent architectural collection of drawings, models, and information of the new works of architecture in close proximity to the site, built after 1994: the museum, the music hall, the hotel, the office tower, the metro stations, and the three bridges: Zubi Zuri, Deusto, and Eskalduna. The program for the bridge is given by the client, while the program for the pavilion is developed by the designer. The relation of the bridge and the pavilion (architectural, location, etc.) is also defined by the designer.

At the macro level, the studio addresses the relationship of the two structures to the created public space, in, on, and around them, as well as on the language of the two structures as they relate to each other and the numerous well-known architectural works in their vicinity. At the level of the structures themselves, the studio extends its focus on materials, geometry, and connections, and on life-cycle issues, as well as on the detailing of the various visible subsystems, such as lighting, railings, and furniture. Materials like stainless steel, glass, and wood are particularly examined.

As the geometry of the structures, especially the bridge, cannot be represented on 2D drawings, 3D computer modeling is necessary for this studio. Furthermore, studies of precedent designs and understanding of engineering issues (structural, transportation, hydraulics) are essential in facing the challenges of designing both the bridge and the pavilion. These subjects are carried in the studio to a sufficient level for architectural design, and no further course prerequisites beyond the core courses of MArch-I are necessary.