Evangelia Raikidou has recently graduated with an Integrated Masters Degree in Architecture (Dipl.Ing) from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Her diploma research thesis examined trends of ‘breaking boundaries’ between independent spatial units within the school building, as well as within the design process, with the ultimate goal of opening the educational environment to public space and public debate. Thus, she approached open-air urban space as an environmental tool for informal education; lying in the intersection of participatory practices, spatial literacy and unstructured play; and for sustainable action, such as environmental education, awareness of the gendered use of space and bottom-up activism. Through case studies, she argued that these processes render the urban environment into a sustainable ‘macro-school’.
Her diploma design thesis was a large-scale landscape design project, with strong elements of strategic planning, which addressed the ever growing need of western Thessaloniki for quality public green spaces and the restoration of access to the seafront. Embarking from the approach of ‘cultural landscape’, it proposed a periurban metropolitan park, with the combination of the natural landscape with athletic and recreational public facilities. The key strategic goals included the integration of new land uses, the facilitation of (hyper)local access and circulation within the area, soil decontamination, biodiversity enhancement and flood protection, through different design scales and incremental planning.
At the Interdisciplinary Centre, Evangelia is trained in methods of qualitative research, by designing an action research project which focuses on public participation in the context of a Viennese residential urban development. At the same time she explores critiques of participation rhetorics in planning and concepts as ‘space appropriation’ and ‘insurgent urbanism’.
Selected Publications:
BROKKING, C.; KRIECHBAUM, L.; RAIKIDOU, E. (2022). ‘Objects of Everyday Life (?)’. in: Gabauer, A.; Hoftberger, K.; Kapsali, M.; Karagianni M.; Knierbein, S. (eds). DEFINE PUBLICNESS! An international urban research workshop (reader). Vienna: Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space, TU Wien. pp.43-47 ISBN NUMBER 978-3-902707-60-4
Conferences:
ALEGRE, A; RAIKIDOU, E. (2022). ‘Learning (in/from/the) city: reconfiguration of urban space into a sustainable ‘macro-school’. in: VIBRArch: Changing priorities, Valencia International Biennial of Research in Architecture.