architektonima, by Maya Christodoulaki, is a creative architectural practice forging a distinctive approach to spatial creation: it is both embedded in the materiality and the making of buildings, as well as, active in research and theory. The space-making methodology is rooted in a profound engagement with mathematical thinking and natural philosophy, and is practiced and applied using architecture, signals and weaving.

SHOW: All Research Building Teaching Weaving Exhibition Photography

Throwing dice for non-gamblers
2024

40th Anniversary Symposium on Cooperation and Exchange between Southeast University and ETH Zurich in Nanjing, China.
Reimagining Architecture: Navigating the Impact of Computing and Artificial Intelligence

Starting with a tapestry from 1959 called Les dés sont jetés (The Dice are Cast) by Le Corbusier (1887-1965), this paper aims to open up the Greek word διακυβεύω, meaning ‘to play at dice with’, or ‘mit Einem würfeln’. Jørn Utzon commissioned the Swiss Architect to create a piece that would hang in the Sydney Opera House. The decorative work with its declarative title leaves no room to connect with the aleatory and statistical prehistories of probabilistic thinking. And yet, since the dice are thrown, they allude to the modernist prerogative of not dealing with uncertainty and ignoring the universe of a yet-to-be-thrown dice. Given the etymological connection of the hazardous with the dice, the paper aims to explore the chances that a non-gambler like Le Corbusier would engage with the probabilistic without the popular apocalyptic para-philology. As a physical object, the dice was shaped by the uniform materials like ivory (Hacking, 1999) that would ensure a certain objective equidistance from the cases to be. As a digital object, that technical material property that safeguards the game is missing, producing a gap, in our relationship with uncertainty. What is the διακύβευμα, the result of throwing the dice, then? Is there anything puritanical in the way we see chance today? What tapestry are we weaving and how do we think within the naughty, self-referential environment of Large Language Models?

Category
Research, Conference, ATTP

Le Corbusier, 1959, Les dés sont jetés, www.jstor.org/stable/community.9485523

The Canvassed Opinions of Frankenstein
2022

www.academia.edu/104812561/The_Canvassed_Opinions_of_Frankenstein

This essay was written for Dixit Algorizmi, a publication on the history of technology and its relationship with contemporary artistic production curated by Sheida Ghomashchi and Space Caviar for the 2022 Pavilion of the Republic of Uzbekistan at the Venice Biennale.

Category
Research, Frankenstein, Venice Art Biennale

Transtextual Invention
2022-2026

The dissertation presents a study of the Early Renaissance sculptor and architect Antonio di Piero Averlino (1400 – c. 1469), known as ‘Filarete’, by examining matters of rhetoric, probability, law and fallibility. The primary goal is a methodological enquiry of architectural writing in the light of advances in non-linear processing. These subjects provide the necessary relational structures to examine the stochastic conception behind the architect’s single literary work, the Libro Architettonico, and connect to matters of probabilistic rhetoricity in data-driven architectural production. The thesis proposes a reevaluation of the theoretical frame of his opus that focuses on formal concerns, and the substantiation of intellectual and mathematical trajectories, like non-linear argumentation, that are fitting to the dialogical narrative and metaphorical drawings of the Libro. The thesis connects the unfavored treatment of Filarete to an emphasis on stylistic concerns that prioritize architectural attribution pertaining to key references like Leon Battista Alberti and instead suggests a wider observational canon of dialogical literature. Recent studies on premodern rhetorics will play a vital role in informing Filarete’s exposure to humanist, neoplatonic and scholastic literature. The principal objective of this project is to examine how Filarete’s persona centered around the idea of virtue relates to transtextual invention and the humanist use of ‘the probable’, as well as how quasi-propositions influence his unique architectonic conception in a manner sufficient to challenge any notion of inferiority as-a-thinker, as well as an-author.

Category
Research, Filarete, ATTP, TU Vienna, Architecture Theory

The Artificial Waiting Room
2022

www.academia.edu/104617434/The_Artificial_Waiting_Room

The Artificial Waiting Room is a metaphor for the imitation and generation of Architecture with the use of Machine Learning. It summarizes the search for a critical approach that firstly does not appropriate architectural history for the justification of Artificial Intelligence, and secondly one that can review AI’s effect on Architecture.

The work is structured in three parts. In the first chapter, we look at the definition of AI by reviewing not only its public sentiment as a cautionary tale
through the story of Frankenstein, but also its historical and theoretical base and its transition to Machine Learning. It is accompanied with a collective timeline of events from the AI-contributing disciplines that aims to show the flexibility of assimilating machinic architecture in the history of Machine Learning.

In the second chapter, we engage with the hypothesis of a historical continuity of Machines and Architecture and study a selection of recent books/atlases that place the machine as a connector of architectural examples. The case studies range from Claude-Nicolas Ledoux to Nicholas Negroponte. In each case, parallels to ML examples are drawn in an attempt to bridge them with the theoretical frame and historical timeline of AI that was reviewed in the first chapter.

Finally, the approach shifts from a case-by-case study to the images of AI Architecture. Having identified machinic architecture as unfitting to critique itself, three cultural flagships are chosen as facilitators of this computationally spatial practice. The AI room is built upon the significance of computational models, three-dimensionality, and playfulness, transforming along expectations and aesthetics. The appearance of the AI room as a known, vernacular, mere object, makes it an obvious and wanted object. Beyond the technological shortcomings of architecture, and with the theoretical arguments of Brian O‘Doherty and Arthur C. Danto, the AI room is compared to the contemporary gallery to observe its persistent deification.

Category
Research, Thesis, University of Innsbruck, AI, Architecture Theory

Innsbruck Printing Facilities
2021-2024

built project w/ Mario Ramoni
under construction

Design competition to Development for the new centralized printing hub for Land Tirol.

Category
Building, Completed, Austria

Kappl Cemetery
2020-2023

built project w/ Mario Ramoni

Nestled on the steep hillside to the south of the church of St. Anthony stands the new cemetery of Kappl. The work is conceived as a natural platform for contemplation, carefully designed to offer an unparalleled panorama of the Paznaun valley in Tirol that unfolds towards the southwest.

Defined by a formidable concrete wall to the south, the site traverses three distinct levels, seamlessly connected by two gently winding ramps. Upon arrival at the initial terrace from the adjacent municipal road, visitors are greeted by a single-storey concrete structure with an encased oak urn wall. Midway through the site, the visitor pauses where the two ramps change direction. Here, a sheltered outdoor sitting niche beckons with a strategically placed window and a serene water feature, crafting a moment of tranquillity that counters the upper building's presence. The journey through the cemetery's terraces finds completion as the visitor ascends back to the first level via a small staircase, guiding them to the entrance. This gentle circulation contributes to the solemn ambiance of the grounds, inviting contemplation within the serene embrace of nature and architecture.

Category
Building, Completed, Austria

Oosterdokseiland
2016-2017

built project with UNStudio

www.unstudio.com/en/page/11733/booking.com-city-campus

Design Development of the new booking.com Headquarters in Amsterdam.

Category
Building, Completed, The Netherlands

All images courtesy of UNStudio.

Radical Austria: Everything is Architecture
2020-2021

w/ Bart Lootsma, Alexa Baumgartner

designmuseum.nl/en/tentoonstelling/radicalaustria/

form-faktor.at/radical-austria-im-design-museum-den-bosch

The exhibition Radical Austria: Everything is Architecture cast a spotlight on the vibrant Austrian avant-garde of the sixties and early seventies showcasing a rich collection of art, clothing, design and architecture. The exhibition was on display at the Design Museum Den Bosch, NL, from 26 May to 3 October 2021, it was curated by the team of Bart Lootsma, Alexa Baumgartner and Maya Christodoulaki and designed by the Dutch office DeVrijerVanDongen.

Within the elongated gallery of DNDB, the exhibition navigated through the intricate tapestry of the era, delving into ten pivotal subjects that encapsulated the spirit of the time: Cultic Cities, Actionism, Realized Manifestoes, Art and Revolution, Schöner Wohnen, Everything is Architecture, Body and Sexuality, Cybernetic Cities, Perception, Prototypes, Mind Expanders, Feedback Architecture, and Climate Zones. Featuring visionary works by Coop Himmelblau, Haus-Rucker-Co, Zünd-Up, Walter Pichler, Valie Export, Hans Hollein, Angela Hareiter and Raimund Abraham, the exhibition highlighted a newfound technical sensibility that was emerging in design. It unravelled themes that resulted into the craftmanship of immersive environments, design objects, avant-garde fashion, captivating performances, innovative furniture, and occasionally buildings.

Category
Exhibition, Research

All images courtesy of Peter Tijhuis.

Radical Austria - The Movies
2020-2021

txt.architecturaltheory.eu/?p=3035&lang=de

www.architecturaltheory.tv/?cat=220&lang=de

www.mak.at/en/program/event?event_id=1649083923610&article_id=1649083923603

Research on the ORF Archive for the exhibition resurfaced a series of original video material showcasing the trend-setting work of the Austrian avantgarde. Through the medium of television and broadcasts like Kultur Aktuell, the actors explored the possibilities of communication in architecture, molding the character of transmission, programs, and critical reception for a generation. During the exhibition, the broadcasts were simultaneously available at architecturaltheory.tv and presented at a public event during the MISSING LINK exhibition, curated by Sebastian Hackenschmidt, at MAK Vienna.

Category
Exhibition, Research

All images courtesy of the ORF Archive.

TC1a
2024

Two-colour circular gradient weave on TC1.

Category
Weaving, TC1

Space-making through architecture, signals and weaving.