Very different from each other, yet they all have something in common. A strong belief that learning occurs through observation, and by being out there, getting involved in real situations, collaborating, addressing real problems, and providing solutions with the means that the discipline affords. Most often with a constant exchange with locals, colleagues, and theorists and practitioners from other fields, which contribute to an interdisciplinary approach.

Urban Regeneration Strategies: The Tirana case study (25/9-3/10/2022). A workshop at Tirana, Albania where, together with colleague Dimitra Nikolaou and ten students from the School of Architecture at NTUA we were invited to the Tirana Architecture Week (TAW) the overall topic for this year being the pros and cons of going high.

Tirana has been growing in leaps and bounds with a tendency to expand vertically. The Tirana skyline today is marked by several tall buildings, some of them quite impressive.

Furthermore, the public space as well is being transformed through major interventions. The Skanderbeg Square redesign by belgian architectural office 51N4E has become a very successful urban space that manages to interweave several heterogeneous elements into one coherent whole.

The School of Commons. Place des Possibles, Saint Laurent en Royans, France (28/8-4/9/2022). During the first out of three workshops of the three-year School of Commons, an Erasmus+ program eleven students from the School of Architecture at NTUA collaborated with their peers from ENSA.G Grenoble, and Politecnico di Torino with the guidance of Collectif Etc in the Place des Possibles, a reused textile factory which nowadays functions as a social hub and a community center for meetings, classes, workshops of various trades, and more. The main principle was that learning occurs best by doing and experiencing. During one week students lived together, had meals together, cooked, and collaborated in four groups (building, territorial, events, editorial).

A community participatory action at Kefalovriso.

Seven students from the School of Architecture at NTUA collaborated with the local Association of Kefalovriso and the Vrilissos outdoors association set out to design, develop and implement the impressive, yet abandoned passage from the main village square to the gorge. A natural and cultural heritage route with plane trees and the seven successive watermills in various states of integrity or ruin.