Architecture of Connection

Design Solutions to Urban Loneliness

Programme 
Integrate, mix, open up, share, facilitate intergenerational relations, generate connectivity, create opportunities and sense of purpose would be the keywords defining the featured projects. Ranging from competitions proposals to recently built or ongoing projects and from small, acupunctural solutions to city-scale initiatives, these projects will expose the diversity of possible approaches, but also the importance of combining the designers’ out-of-the-box thinking with their ability to connect various urban actors in order to make things happen. 

Omer Kanipak, Istanbul- and London-based architecture photographer and author, and Orhan Kolukisa, Istanbul-based architect and photographer, will do a visual introduction, highlighting cultural differences in dealing with loneliness. Photo-essay comparing the use of public spaces in the two capitals. 

Anna Yudina will expose the multiple facets of urban disconnection and how they are addressed in cities across France. Case studies include a social housing block in Lille shaped around a string of shared multi-use spaces that encourage interaction between neighbours; a new capsule residence for the students of a free-tuition web development school who would otherwise be unable to afford accommodation in Paris; a well-known art foundation opening its outpost in a notorious suburb, and more. 

Olga Ioannou (Greece), principal at Ioannou-Karvelas architects and urban design lecturer at the National Technical University of Athens, will share her experience in bringing change to Elaionas, a post-industrial area in Athens, Greece, which became home to marginalised social groups and illegal activities and presented a massive challenge for those attempting to regenerate it. 

Stefanie Heublein from Goethe Institute Prague will introduce Shared Cities: Creative Momentum, an initiative that has brought together 11 organisations from Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia to create a space for architecture, art, urbanism and the sharing economy, and contribute to the transformation of urban life. 

Peter van Asche (Netherlands), Bureau SLA. BloemkoolburenBond and Contemporary neighbourhoods – winning entry Almere in Who Cares Competition.

Presentation of a draft-Manifesto on how architects can contribute to an Architecture of Connectedness, based on the case studies of this evening, and to be published and elaborated on www.a10.eu

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