oiio

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OTO

Los Angeles is notorious for its private car-based transportation. The biggest disadvantage of the privately-owned car is the fact that it uses too many resources for too little effect. When one or two persons are transported by car they utilize successfully the engine and two of the seats, but the remaining seats as well as the trunk, constitute wasted resources for that specific transportation period. All that waste leads to a reasonable question: “What if we were able to dissect a working car into working components which could be utilized according to given circumstances?” Those components would concern the Engine, the Cabin, and the Trunk. Contemporary cars do not offer the choice between those three components. Basically, you cannot have the one without the other. You cannot own a cabin without an engine or trunk. But it is possible that in the future LA people would be able to own only the Cabin and, through AI centrally controlled circulation, they could create a temporary assembly-unit, an ephemeral design, which would serve their “exact” needs on demand. Los Angeles would then be able to invite its people and visitors to streets liberated from the old overflow of vehicles and ready to accommodate their “exact” needs, no more, no less.

VIDEO

"oto" is one of five finalists of the LA Auto Show's Automobility Designer/Developer Challenge 2017 and was invited to present the idea live at the Los Angeles Convention center Auto Show.

Here are details on the Challenge

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THE BIG BEND

There is an undeniable obsession that resides in Manhattan. It is undeniable because it is made to be seen. There are many different ways that can make a building stand out, but in order to do so the building has to literary stand out. We have become familiar with building height measurements. We usually learn about the latest tallest building and we are always impressed by it’s price per square foot. It seems that a property’s height operates as a license for it to be expensive. New York city’s zoning laws have created a peculiar set of tricks trough which developers try to maximize their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high rise structure. But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall? If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan. The longest building in the world. The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan. We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky.

ioannis oikonomou

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GLASNOST

For a reality tv president, you have to have a reality tv oval office. Let’s turn it inside out in order to see who is going to be the first to be fired.

The Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States in the White House. Every new president redecorates the Oval Office to give a personal touch and reflect their ideals. The project, as a conceptual idea, turns the office inside-out by way of re-arranging its furniture centrifugally. The title of the project ‘Glasnost’ means in Russian ‘the fact of being public’. The term was made into a slogan for increased government transparency by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Team: Io.Oikonomou, D.Tsachrelia, E.Tsachrelia

2014-2016

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CONSUME

Edible translucent colored gelatin, vinyl mold, monofilament line

Dimensions approximately 11’6” x 4’6” x 10” (3,5 x 1,4 x 0.25 m)

CONSUME is a site-specific installation at Immersive Gallery, located in Brooklyn, in a former warehouse, on a site threatened to be consumed by development. The installation is edible and it remains until the audience consumes it all.

Io.Oikonomou, E.Tsachrelia

2016

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TORCH

Proposal for a restaurant, 2014. The building is designed as a narrative of constant negotiations between boundaries, between building an identity and living in resonance with the local natural environment. It offers a unique merging with the sea while positioning itself in such a manner that prevents the noise and unwanted views from neighbor objects as well as from the always crowded pedestrian promenade. At the same time, it is imagined as an object in a state of continuous semi-permanence, always ready to be disassembled in order to emerge somewhere else. 

Io.Oikonomou, I.Milosevic 

Budva, Montenegro, 2014. 

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THE GUNS OF ARCHITECTURE

Iconic architecture dominated the West for the past century. Now the rest of the world is intoxicated with architectural clones through which they can demonstrate the vast amounts of money a society is able to waste on buildings instead of its people.

Western architecture has become the new opium for the new oriental super states which consume it in order to demonstrate their power. But there lies an inconvenient truth behind the spectacular facades. This neo colonial architecture is realized through labor conditions which resembles slavery. Once more we can witness the degradation of societies around the world through the introduction of western weapons. This time the weapons are not disease and gun powder, they are symbols of status whose form is dictated by the western elite.

Western architecture has become the new weapon of colonization. Western architects have become the new guns against the societies.

In that respect each and every Biennale constitutes a gun fair, but this time Rem Koolhas chose not to show us the new guns of architecture. There are no starchitects in the Biennale. This time Koolhas decided to show us the components of the guns. The pieces which formulate contemporary architecture. The mechanism behind the trigger. Could that be the psychoanalysis of a guilty conscience?

Download free images for t-shirt printing

or you can order them here: PAOM

Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris

The original photos presented in this article have been technically processed.

The architects shown in the pictures have exemplarily chosen.

We express our respect and esteem for the architects themselves and for their work.

This project is merely a contribution to scientific and artistic dialog.

2014

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ACROPOLIS OF THESSALONIKI

Revival of a historical landmark at the crown of the city

Responding both to the need for public space and the modern promotion aspirations of Thessaloniki the synthetic process chooses to organize the precincts of Eptapirgio as a spatial crown, a halo, which derives its radiance through the disciplining of flows, functions, and lighting in the form of an eloquent ring. Concerning the flows the new ring undertakes to highlight the timeless synergy between the Fort of the Acropolis and its walls. Simultaneously it tackles to formulate a center-point, to which all the flows of the synthesis, as well as the supralocal and local uses, converge radially. The use of the ring as an outdoor museum of Thessaloniki arises through the visual advantages offered by its typology, providing an urban importance. At the same time the ring, serves as a carrier of luminaires, converting it into a bright path, which produces a visual effect, that differentiates and underlines the Fort as the culmination of fortifications. In order to lay the groundwork for a smooth, gradual familiarization between the new landmark and its visitors, as a final move, the composition attempts to incorporate as a component time itself. Considering the future archaeological revelations of the area, the synthetical centroid is converted into a gradually formed archaeological site, which deconstructs the existing square, completes the ellipse of the ring around Eptapyrgio and gives to the visitor the opportunity to observe its urban evolution.

Location: Eptapyrgio area, Thessaloniki, Greece

Project team: Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris

2013

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BAR EXTENSION

Architects: Ioannis Oikonomou, Maria Koutsari, 2011

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GUGGENHEIM EXTENSION STORY

What if we decided we needed a little more of Guggenheim?

Its famous ramps would continue their ascent “completing” the atrium under the glass roof. The vertical “completion” of Guggenheim would lead to the formation of an internal cone at the peak of which the circular ramp would become a homogeneous level, the last floor of the museum. The glass roof becomes a light source, diffusing its rays towards the interior. However, Guggenheim museum has become so iconic, so emblematic and hermetic in our minds that it can no longer be touched by architects! Even if his own creator were to propose an alternation of its form, New Yorkers would suddenly feel as if they have lost a dear old friend. In a building loaded with symbolism even the story of its alteration could become its extension.     

Ioannis Oikonomou

2013

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JADRAN

4th place in International architectural competition for the conceptual architectural – urban design of hotel “STARI GRAD ULCINJ”, total design area 24.015 m2, government of the republic of Montenegro - Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Ulcinj, Montenegro.

Jadran hotel lays on top of a 30 meters cliff overlooking the city Ultsini in the Adriatic. The synthetic problem included the presence of the town - monument opposite to the rock, the  large size of the building and the morphology of the rock. The solution which was finally chosen was based on ideas that have already been implemented by residents to address the steep slopes of the rock. The form of the hotel was adjusted in order to resemble the existing terraces in an attempt to adapt the form of the complex on the flows and the geometry of the rock. Following the ridges and peaks of the rock the terraces are integrated  on the site and the morphological surface of the rock. At the pick of the rock the composition tackles to prevent the emergence of a visual competitor and tries to enhance the visual relationship that already exists between the cliff and the historic city.

Ioannis Oikonomou, I.Milosevic

2012

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CONFESSION SPOT

MyCity2  /  confession spot  /  symbiosis? -    15 Biennale de la Mediterranée  Thessaloniki / Rome 2011

Mycity2 Confession Spot is an installation which serves as a direct link with Mycity2. It constitutes a hovering cube made of white cloth which surrounds  a  lectern to where the inhabitants of the city is able to confess their urban desires. Instead of a book, on the lectern rests a lap top through which the inhabitants can choose the location and write down their  desire by clicking the corresponding square of the platform. They can fill in the communication form describing the attributes of their desire and then their urban desire is channeled to architecture offices of the city which undertake it’s formulation and placement on the hovering platform. After that the inhabitants can click on their chosen square in order to see their desire becoming true in Mycity2.  

Ioannis Oikonomou, Fotis Sagonas

2011

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PARK TO PARK

Park to Park is a project which blends low cost strategies and the utilization of unusable cityscape in order to promote the city’s future urban regeneration.Park to park idea is based on the city’s constant need for mature trees as necessary parts of it’s future urban regeneration schemes. The city’s future always demands the presence of mature trees making urban regenerations an even more expensive prospect. Park to park project proposes to confront the cost of the future by turning it into an advantage of the city today. The proposition dictates the creation of a network of urban tree nurseries situated in areas which at the moment are empty of any function. In those nurseries young trees will be left to mature after they have been purchased cheaply,  keeping the plantation cost low. This network will eventually supply the future regeneration with low cost mature trees. The tree nursery consists of low cost boxes made out of wooden pallets. The maturing box will eventually be used as transportation container. The result of this process is a park organized in wooden boxes where trees grow waiting to be transported to their final destination. By growing it’s own trees the city cuts down the cost of it’s future regeneration. In the mean time while waiting for the trees to mature the city offers us a piece of it’s future today.   

Ioannis Oikonomou, Grigorios Vegliris

2008

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NYCity2

The city of urban desires

NYCity2 is an attempt to redefine the city based on the desires of it’s own inhabitants.  For this reason a platform is created which hovers above the city unrestrained by the limitations of the conventional urban fabric. 

NYCity2 does not use any sort of official city planning tool. It’s form occurs from the accumulation of desires, which is not affected by any sort of institutional restrictions. A reverse system of city planning is formulated using as it’s sole design tool the individual perception of the inhabitants, freed from the reluctance of reality. 

Simultaneously a smart phone electronic application allows the real time navigation in the construction of the new New York City. Through it’s reverse design function and the freedom which offers NYCity2 constitutes a mirror through which we can gaze at the city of our desires.

1. Fill in the communication form describing the attributes of your desire. 

2. Your desire is channeled to NYC architecture offices which undertake it’s formulation and placement on the hovering platform. 

3. You can now click on your chosen square in order to see your desire becoming true in NYCity2. 

4. Or you can visit the construction site itself and check it out ‘though the eyes’ of your smartphone.

www.nycity2.com

www.mcny.org/exhibitions/current/The-Unfinished-Grid.html

Ioannis Oikonomou, Fotis Sagonas

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HIDDEN EXPOSITION

The compositional process is orientated towards the re-emergence of the Public Theatre as a landmark, emphasizing not only on its past but also on its attributes as a piece of  contemporary architecture.

The architectural intervention attempts to confront the present state of collective social disapproval towards the public theatre through the formation of a visual exaltation. This attempt is organized as a vocabulary of architectural choices which aims to the integration of the building to the function of the city.   Taking advantage of the adaptation abilities of contemporary architectural morphology, facing the demands of the urban landscape the composition attempts to provide the elements of a direct relationship between the city and the building.     As a result of that relationship a dynamic public space is produced, capable of enriching the symbolic capital of the city through the introduction of a multitude of urban experiences in an urban landscape already chromed by memory.

National competition entry, Municipal theater of Corfu, Greece

Team: Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris, D.Moysiadis, K.Panopoulos, X.Tsitsikas

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PEARL

Seeking to create a visual connection that negotiates the qualities of the old and the new city, the project features a series of lines that define and articulate
the functions of the centre. using the existing school of arts as a starting point, the project adopts a u-shaped layout, resulting in an open courtyard space. the sequence of lines that run along the north-east plot of the site manipulates the topography by lifting the strip of land to various heights. arranged to a slanted angle to receive maximum sunlight, the linear addition directs circulation, creates spaces for outdoor leisure activities and gives the block a thematic cohesion. at the most exocentric area of the site adjacent to the spinal circulation which connects the block's two major boulevards together, the lines are cut to accommodate a large planetarium. resembling a pearl inside an oyster, the partially-hidden building is further skewed by the series of lines which come between the building and the viewer. the structure regulates the access to all function areas, while the atrium that surrounds it provides entry to the administration building as well as the amphitheatre to the south and exposition area.

Architect: Ioannis Oikonomou

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CITY HORISON

2nd Place in International architectural competition “Urban and architectural design of waterfront Tivat “Pine”, area 9900m2, Municipality of the City of Tivat, Montenegro.

The urban design problem concerning the urbanization of a former militarized zone and it’s transformation into a international touristic destination came to surface through the urban regeneration of the pier of Tivat. Through the analysis of the architectural question it became apparent that the real issue revolves around the problematic relationship between the wharf and the surrounding area as well as the urban role which is able to play. In this sense the pier can be seen as an urban core that manages the flows of the city. In order to operate in this manner, the pier should be linked in a bigger degree to the city center and also have direct communication with the north and south side of the town. For this to happen the pier itself must to be completed to a certain point of it’s surface. Covering the existing gap of the pier, the city’s front facing the street  becomes a bigger, including the former military zone. This way the whole pier is transformed into a square, ready to be connected to the rest of the city through the management of materials.

Competition team : 

Ioannis Oikonomou, Ivan Millocevic

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GV

in progress..

Architect: Io.Oikonomou