• How do design practices and the scientific field of architecture respond in relation to the challenges of an era marked by environmental, political and social crises?
• How are lifestyles being reflected in the cities, infrastructure and the built environment and, in turn, how are spatial planning, buildings and cities shaping  prevalent societal behaviors?
• How does all this get linked to the values of a society in terms of how it perceives nature and its relations with it?

As a continuation on the explorations of the concepts of  the post-graduate course “Contemporary Theories and their applications to Design I: Ecology, Sustainability, Participation” [1]  this course takes the form of a design-research lab with goals to conceive of methodologies and investigate strategies for the city, as a complex phenomenon composed of a material form and of its social structures.

Athens serves as a research and design field case study. The area we were involved with for two spring semesters (2017, 2018) was Victoria Square. The format resembled an intensive “Urban research lab” and it occured both in the classroom and in the neighborhood itself, using the community “test-bed” as partners of the community project launched by Rick Lowe, an invited artist participating in Documenta 14.

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