SHARE Architects Virtual Forum of Greece and Cyprus | recap

He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Architecture, in 1995. This was followed up by a M. Arch in Architectural Design at the University College London (Bartlett) 1995 – 1996. After two years of work with C.E. Chrysanthou Architects, he set up his own practice in Nicosia, in 1998. Eraclis has also received several awards, while also having buildings nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Prize and having represented Cyprus at the Venice Biennale amongst others. Due to his continuous involvement with art topics, he was appointed in the Selection Committee of the Cyprus Art Museum of Contemporary Art for several years. Eraclis Papachristou was also Vice President of the Cyprus Architects Association (CAA) for several years and has received the Cyprus State Architecture Prize twice.

He talked about the topic of ‘urban development’: “I always liked some of De Chirico paintings, which introduce in a surrealistic approach. The idea of the city with the reference to historic city. What I try to understand through these paintings is that you can find the idea of the passage way, the square. I will introduce you today 5 of our projects. 3 of the projects we are presenting today are related to student halls. As architects we mainly design buildings. So what we are trying and very seldom we are involving in urban design projects. In this development we are trying to introduce the idea of urbanity, of the passage way, the square, the event. How we can see into the buildings with a typology and the meaning of urbanity”. 

Peter Murray: Chairman London Festival of Architecture, Curator-in-Chief New London Architecture and the London Society, from the UK, was the fifth speaker

He trained as an architect but has spent most of his career writing about and commenting on architecture rather than practicing it. He edited the weekly newspaper for architects, Building Design, before moving on to the Royal Institute of British Architects Journal. He curated a number of major exhibitions at the Royal Academy. He founded the design and architecture magazine Blueprint and the global communications company Wordsearch which specializes in design and branding for architecture and real estate with offices in Beijing, Singapore, Sydney, New York as well as London.
He started the London Festival of Architecture which began life as the Clerkenwell Architecture Biennale in 2004. The Festival is now a significant annual event in the cultural life of the capital. The New London Architecture centre of was founded in 2005 as a centre for debate and discussion about the changing face of the capital. Peter has written numerous books including The Saga of Sydney Opera House, London’s Growing Up  and Great Estates. He has recently completed a book on The Leadenhall Building by Rogers Stirk Harbour.

He referred to “the polycentric city”: “New London architecture is very much involved in the debate about London but also the debate about cities in general. We have been here as result of covid-19 about the death of the city. New York is finished. The way we live will change . I don’t think that this is going to be the outcome and as the American author Mark Twain said: ‘the reports of the death of the city are greatly exaggerated’. To start with a view of  central London during the lockdown due to the Covid crisis, obviously empty like many cities around the world“.

Michael Cosmas: Director of Michael Cosmas Architecture LLC, was the sixth speaker

Michael holds a professional architecture degree from the Architectural Association in London and a Masters in Urban Design from Harvard University. Prior to founding MCA, Michael had practiced architecture in London and Boston, where he was involved in a series of high profile, international projects including the Yokohama International Port Terminal, recipient of the RIBA Worldwide Architecture Award. He has taught Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard University’s GSD, Boston’s BAC and various Universities in Cyprus. MCA has received some significant architectural awards, including the first prize in the European 7 international architectural competition in Thessalonica, Greece, the 2nd prize in the Salt Lakes Natural History Centre competition in Larnaca Cyprus, and the 2nd prize in the Old Harbor Redevelopment competition, held in Limassol Cyprus. 

His speech focused on “The future of urban housing”, as he mentioned: “Any debate with regards to housing has been colored by the pandemic, so we are beginning to understand some of the implications, but I would like to start from the heading. We are talking about the future of urban housing, a future which is very unpredictable, as the past few months have proven. Urban, which is very unstable and kind of highly problematic, at least in our region, as we have discovered the last 20 years. Housing, which is almost non-existing as a condition, because most of the housing that is provided for is essentially private“.

Jan Gehl: Founder of Gehl architects, from Denmark, was the seventh speaker

He is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. Gehl received a Masters of Architecture from the School of Architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen in 1960, and practiced architecture from 1960 to 1966. In 1966 he received a research grant from KADK to study ” the form and use of public spaces”; his book Life between Buildings (1971) reports his studies of public life in public spaces, and develops his theories about how city planning and architecture influence public life. He became a professor of urban planning at KADK, and a Visiting Professor around the world. 
He has published several books, as:  Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, New City Spaces, Public Spaces – Public Life, New City Life, Cities for People, How to Study Public Life.
He has been awarded numerous awards, including the  Sir Patrick Abercrombie Prize – for exemplary contributions to Town Planning and Territorial Development, International Union of Architects, Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Global Award for Sustainable Architecture and many more. 

He spoke about “Livable cities for the 21st century”: “Future of housing also means where the house is located, so I will talk about city quality and how to make livable cities in the 21st century. He have a great problem: For the past 50 years we have done whatever we could to chase people out of our cities. Before World War II most cities, globally, were made by people for people, they were human scale, based on the human ways of moving and the human senses. We all felt very comfortable in this scale of city and inhabitation. Before modernism, all cities were not consisting of buildings, but of spaces. With the modernism the focus was moved away from spaces, towards the objects. In the old cities we always remember the spaces and maybe a few important buildings. In the new cities we remember a number of funny buildings, but no spaces at all. The result to all of these was a goodbye to concern for people, to human scale.
  Also the ‘Car Invasion’ took over city spaces worldwide and the people were chased out. There is a lot of concern and attention to the traffic and the parking, but how can people feel in these cities, stopped to be an issue in many places. 

It is about time to win back the cities for people

and there will be numerous advantages”