Social Practices of Architecture and their Political Dimension

2020-2021

Tutor: Socrates Stratis

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The E.U. 11 (2020-2021)

The seminar addresses architecture as critical spatial practice. The students learned about architecture as an active agent in supporting the urban commons. They learned about the environments in which critical spatial practices take place. They studied relevant theoretical work regarding urban segregation, identifying the social and political factors that cause its spatial manifestation. The students also learned about critical spatial practices both in Cyprus and around the world. For this year, the students designed three board games entitled ‘COUNTER-PUSH’, the E.U. 11, (Encouraging Urbanity Game 11th series). The students dealt with playful practices to comment but also to design practices to support the right to live in city centers, especially in Limassol! “PUSH” is about the practice of evicting the local population from many city centers around the world, due to their transformation into global investment products.  «PUSH» is the name of Frederik Gerten’s documentary. It outlines the mechanisms that gradually increase the values of land and rent and deprive city dwellers of the right to housing. The case of Limassol is relevant.