Former military infrastructure, in the form of individual structures or whole military areas, tend to become functionless, often further becoming neglected. Additionally they tend to act as a source of dissonance, contestation, different interpretations, especially in places with histories that have diverse perspectives rising from different ethnic groups. They entangle a variety of issues - political, cultural, social, urban. Could there be an alternative to such sites? Instead of becoming neglected with their stories and histories forgotten, could they become an integral part of their surrounding context, encouraging remembrance and co-existence of a multiplicity of narratives and voices? Could they become a catalyst for communities to come together and encourage an exchange of knowledge?

The former fortification complex around the city of Liepāja together with the former military base of Karosta presents a site that entangles both neglect and dissonance. Having lived through a variety of historic periods and being mostly associated with the Soviet Occupation, the place has always been seen and portrayed as one with a heavy and dark past. The research therefore aims to unpack the reason for the neglect present in the neighbourhood as well as to uncover stories of the place that have not been exposed. The research outcome comes together as a biography of place that addresses the complexity of the site and provides a further base for the design proposal on the chosen site.

This research delves into the Maginot fortifications of the Second World War in Maurienne, a region nestled in the French Alps. The objective is to unravel the layers of this war heritage examining collected narratives to comprehend its material existence. Focusing on a distinctive architectural object within a specific geographical area, this study aims to provide a profound understanding of the interconnections between the physical integrity of heritage and its ethnographic narratives. In particular, the research focuses on the expression of human perception regarding architecture. The project explores ways to reconnect with forgotten heritage in a large-scaled environnement through the creation of a cultural path.

This research delves into the post-war reconstruction of Damascus, focusing on the intricate balance between preserving cultural heritage and embracing modernity. Through the lens of informal settlements, particularly in the neighborhood of Jobar, the study examines the adaptability of contemporary dwellings alongside historic courtyard houses. The analysis highlights the tension between modernization aspirations and the preservation of unique cultural identities in a post-war context. A comprehensive survey, incorporating diverse voices from the Syrian community, revealed a tapestry of preferences and aspirations that underscore the importance of community living, memories associated with home, and resilience. This input shaped the design intervention known as Bait Byoot, which aims to rebuild structures while fostering a sense of community and resilience. The project integrates green spaces, communal hubs, and varied materials, addressing immediate housing needs and promoting sustainable, flexible growth. Bait Byoot,beyond a housing project, it serves as a blueprint for revitalizing war-torn communities, providing a foundation for healing and growth. The design respects traditions and experiences, bridging the past and future to create spaces for new memories and opportunities. This research emphasizes the human element in post-war reconstruction, advocating for urban resilience and recognizing that rebuilding communities extends beyond physical structures. It calls for a delicate interplay between modernization, cultural preservation, and the human experience. By envisioning the future of neighborhoods like Jobar, the study aims to revitalize the essence of community, creating spaces where resilience, cultural richness, and the philosophy of home-making converge into a narrative of hope and renewal.

My design focuses on creating a community space in Kanarya, Istanbul, with two main goals. The primary goal is to establish a safe space that provides all the necessary tools which are needed after an earthquake disaster. The residents of the neighborhood can come together in the self-sustaining building, which serves as a gathering point (based on the AFAD designated areas) after a disaster to have a safe space, away from the probably destroyed city. Later the building will facilitate the community with its “healing” character and give the community the space to recover after a disaster. The second goal is to use the proposed building before a disaster occurs. The reasoning behind that is so that communities can get familiar with the facilities, and create memories and a sense of belonging to the place. The building design, of a community kitchen, in the neighborhood Kanarya (before the disaster) contributes not only to the daily lives of residents but also to the overall development of the are by creating employment opportunities and facilities that attract people from neighboring localities. The community kitchen aims to provide inhabitants with a daily goal that aligns with the community’s needs. Keeping these requirements in mind, the community kitchen in Kanarya will include a market area and workshop spaces. Here, residents will be able to grow food, cook together, start small crafting projects, such as knitting, and have the opportunity to sell their creations, which aims to provide economic growth within the community. Many design decisions made during the design process are primarily based on the experience of people after the earthquakes on the 6th of February 2023 in Kahramanmaraş. This knowledge was mainly acquired during my work for the Architectural Recovery Team, a foundation created with fellow students to reconstruct long-term housing after the disaster. Besides that, my design decisions are based on the research conducted about disaster preparedness and the psychological influences of space to create a resilient city.

The project proposes a rethinking of what it means to live in a high-density housing estate, wanting to establish how Functionalist Residential Architecture can make its residents feel "At Home". To this end, I propose understanding the differentiation between the concepts of "House" and "Home". Reflecting on the writings of Heidegger, Merleau Ponty and Gaston Bachelard, a house is a functional object, while the home becomes a narrative of living not confined to the extent of the physical dwelling.
Depopulation comes at a high cost. Depopulation essentially entails the dissolution of existing social bonds, and ultimately, depopulation gives way to separation. Depopulation and its by-products, further enhanced by the existing architectures of New Belgrade, essentially give way to what Rod Serling labels "the barrier of loneliness". Given demographic projections, depopulation will become pervasive in all Serbian environments. However, I would argue that given the extent of the titanic functionalist housing blocks in New Belgrade, depopulation will be felt particularly harshly in the capital. This phenomenon allows us to pose a different question to the ones pressing during the Yugoslav housing construction periods: is a functional dwelling enough? In analysing and responding to this demographic situation in Serbia, the project was restricted to Block 23 and the Northern Slab Type Housing Building on site. Through the site's sheer size and status as a canonical example of socialist architecture in New Belgrade, Block 23, therefore, becomes the means to respond situationally to a broader societal issue.

This graduation study examined in an exploratory way how the ‘intangible’ aspects of architectural [built] heritage could be made ‘tangible’ by means of an innovative and strategic collaborative or ‘counter-mapping’-based methodology, in order to give the socio-cultural or intangible aspects of architectural heritage a more prominent place in both the evaluation and the design process. The aim of this study was to come up with an innovative and strategic mapping-based toolbox or methodology that will function as a new addition to the existing valuation guidelines. In this way, an attempt was made to contribute to the development of knowledge for a more inclusive, people-centred and participatory way of dealing with heritage (in line with the current societal shift).

This study showed a step-by-step method whereby the Plague house in Leiden (a 17th century national monument in the Netherlands) was used as a canvas. The first step of this method consisted of counter-mapping the social meaning of the past by means of a ‘newspaper counter-map’ focusing on the 20th century, and a ‘crossed-history counter-map’ combining archival information from different time layers. The next step of this method consisted of counter-mapping the social meaning of the present. This was done in four (slightly) different ways and by means of four different target groups, namely through:

•The combination of a short anonymous and analogue survey and individual counter-mapping assignment with target group 1 (fifteen residents of the nearby ‘Vondellaan’ and ‘Van Baerlestraat’ in Leiden) and target group 3 (three employees of the Naturalis museum, the former function of the Plague house).
•A low-key, interactive and participatory stand with anonymous survey questions on pin boards and two collective counter-mapping assignments with target group 2 (about twenty different visitors during the ‘De Buurt’-festival event, held in the Plague house).
•A joint and face-to-face dialogue (‘oral history’) about the survey questions and collective counter-mapping assignment with target group 4 (two residents of the Plague house complex).

The last step of this method consisted of subsequently ‘linking back’ the data obtained through the counter-mapping of the present to the spatial (physical) elements of the building. This was done on the basis of three different themes:
1. Memory / spirit of the place
2. Place attachment / spatial qualities
3. Possible changes / suggestions

The results seemed to imply that this categorisation provided not only a more visual and therefore more practical ‘tangible’ translation, but also an important structure in terms of what the participants would like to see preserved, strengthened or changed.

All in all, the results seemed to imply that each of these separate methodological steps could offer the possibility of making the ‘intangible’ aspects of architectural heritage more ‘tangible’. More importantly, however, the results also seemed to indicate that the combination of (the various concluding results from) each of these methodological steps of both the past and the present, due to the merging of these partly corresponding and partly different perspectives, can provide a more comprehensive, inclusive, and in-depth insight into the socio-cultural or ‘intangible’ aspects that can potentially be used as a design narrative or guiding theme.

"Uncovering Thresold Spaces" is about uncovering and designing a sunken architecture landscape. The intervention ties different layers of the built environment, human movement and the surrounding to regenerate the existing metro station. As well as, providing a place where students, commuters, or people from around wanting a break, can come.

The project started with the disconnected Vukov Spomenik Station, that was full of potential but was left hidden, underground. The designed threshold space reactivates it by acting as a gateway between itself and the rest of the city. The station is the initiator of the project, however, there is an inversion of importance, and the sunken squares becomes central and operates independently.

How to deal with the abundance of abandoned mega-structures in a city and where do these structures fit in modern society?

Rather than repelling or demolishing, this project deals with the structure of the abandoned factory of Belgrade by redefining its relationship to the human scale. The use of the age-old approach of roman and medieval village structures serves as the main strategy to allow for change and resilience. With the tools of excavation and fragmentation, the former Cotton Factory is transformed into a village community along with parameters to allow the 'anonymous' users to develop a variety of functions.

As a result of urbanization and modernization processes, a significant component of Balkan culture relating to culinary habits and traditions is slowly being lost in urban areas, despite being highly valued by city dwellers. In the specific context of Belgrade, this graduation project investigates how the existing typology of 'local community' centers can be re-imagined with new food-related functions that would not only revitalize the existing modernist structures of these buildings (currently in disrepair), but also introduce new cultural value to their surrounding neighborhoods.

The principal method used in the design process is a two-step typological transference. The first step showcases the revitalization of an existing 'local community' center in the area of New Belgrade. The second step uses the lessons learned in the previous phase for the design of a new community center in the area of Old Belgrade, which is currently lacking such facilities. Both these steps are meant to act as examples and guidelines for the revitalization of the existing centers and the design of new ones, respectively. The potential end result would be a new re-imagined network of 'local community' centers for the city of Belgrade, focused on culinary-related and social activities, which would create a new image for the cultural and architectural character of the city's neighborhoods.

In a future scenario where nuclear energy has been the globally accepted solution to solve the energy crisis, an accident happening in the year 2056 obliterates any hopes for humanity's future on the surface of the Earth.
This graduation project narrates an evolutionary exploration of unconventional ways of living in a post-apocalyptic scenario in which architecture becomes the central element that creates a bond between the radioactive environment and the living systems.
The architectural intervention is defined by three main intentions: the first one is the solver of conflicts between the radioactive context and the villagers. The second one is the inducer of environmental self-sufficient practices as a more sustainable approach to the use of the resources of our planet. And finally, the third intention is to give continuity to the communal and territorial systems existing in the area before the accident, creating a dialogue between pre-nuclear and post-nuclear Cofrentes.

In this architectural narrative, the project builds on an evolutionary process that grows organically answering to the societal needs and resources available in the radioactive context. From the moment of the accident until the present day, the project evolves from a post-apocalyptic phase characterized by the use of scavenged materials and rudimentary constructions to a self-organizative phase, which applies the research findings explored during the first period of the graduation studio, initiating a more technological design.

Post-nuclear Cofrentes exposes through the power of architectural
imagination, the ever-present potentiality of a nuclear-dystopic event, a reality we might live to see.

Deponija Settlement is a Romani settlement that gradually grew on an old landfill site along the Danube and near the city center of Belgrade, Serbia. Large developments on this plot of land would be expensive because of the required extensive soil preparations. This creates the opportunity for the more than hundred families to stay on this plot of land. However, since the landfill is never properly sealed, the polluted ground creates dangerous living circumstances.

Even though the settlement doesn’t look like a place to feel at home, the organization of the settlement can also be observed as having an alternate logic in which these people in particular feel home. In investigating that the act of homecoming takes place at the threshold, the transition from one space to another, it appeared that this notion connects well to the way the Romani live. The transition between private and public seems to be very gradual.

Looking at this way of living as well as aiming for a living situation which can sustain changing family compositions, a house for several families has been designed which is centered around the movement through spaces. A system of thresholds creates spaces which are freely applicable. The quality of the house is the simplicity of the system which allows these thresholds to be taken away, created, or changed. In this way the house gives freedom to its residents to more and more appropriate it, for through time it can increasingly become a place they can call home.

The informal settlement of Kaluđerica (RS) is characterised by a lack of public space, yet, with an abundance of 'residual spaces'. Spaces that are left vacant due to the irregular development of the settlement. The project entails a proposal for a collective garden for one of these residual spaces: to bring people together over the possibility to harvest and care for homegrown produce. And in this sense, to act as a tool of integration from which other communal initiatives might blossom as well.

The location of my graduation project takes place within the complex neighborhoods of downtown Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia. It sits at the beginning of Trg Nikole Pasica street, and lies at the intersection of two monumental squares (Nikola Pasic Square and Terazije Square and Terrace). It is an urban passage called the Bezistan (means market hall in Persian) that has fountain covered by skylight and a square under the roof. Designed as a city third space, it was found with experience of everyday life, an idea of a new society that is build up by all actors and activities.

Yet, due to the social and economic degradation in the last decade of the twentieth century of the former Yugoslavia, the public space of the Bezistan Passage has slowly lost the elements of its original features, such as its pleasantness and spatial hierarchy. This has mainly caused by the transformation of surrounding curriculum and the rapid economic growth, leading to the re-planning and renovation process of the public spaces being overlooked and neglected by the government. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to research and discover a new potential for the Bezistan Passage and methods to revive and regenerate existing public spaces.

Through the process of research, trial and error, the project has landed on a conventional library program as the means to revitalize the Bezistan Passage. The new proposal aims to use the interim period of the Bezistan Passage as an opportunity to introduce a new public library facilities. Further allowing its programs to flow into the passage to continue hosting the current activities and maintain the existing value on site. Furthermore, by treasuring and appreciating the existing architecture and history of the site, the project intends to adopt existing architectural qualities and invite people to wonder, explore in realizing details to learn about past and the previous life of Bezistan.

This graduation project tries to rediscover the importance of three concepts - urban forestry, infrastructure and aesthetics – and unites them with each other, in an attempt to develop a method to design ‘aesthetic urban forest infrastructure’ and discover the potential of such a method. Whereas urban forestry will need more space in our future cities, because of its positive influence on social, environmental and ecological aspects, the form and function of infrastructure are changing and this calls the need for a more integral way of designing it.

Aesthetic perception and experience are a new approach to look at this problem. It is hypothesised that combing these concepts will make it more feasible to create urban forestry and will make sure that future infrastructure will be more than just functional.

The site specific design is done on and along the Prinses Beatrixlaan in Delft, a road that currently creates a barrier between the neighbourhoods surrounding it.

By transforming some aspects of the private, car-oriented, infrastructure and creating a new east-west public transport connection along the Prinses Beatrixlaan, the road can be downgraded and lanes can be removed. This opens up a lot of space along the road, that can be used for urban forestry and better connections between surrounding neighbourhoods. Using four aesthetic categories – the sublime, beautiful, interesting and plain – this urban forest has been shaped to create an aesthetic experience for the users of different modes of transport that move along the road.

The design mainly consists out of three scales, those of the Prinses Beatrixlaan itself, of several location along the road and some details that elaborate on the aesthetic categories. Also a toolbox has been created that gives insight in how to work with these aesthetic categories on different themes.

Finally, a conclusion could be drawn that combining these three concepts – urban forestry, infrastructure and aesthetics - has a lot of potential, for both designers, visitors and nature itself. It gives more space for nature to develop freely, it makes infrastructure more integrated in the urban fabric and creates aesthetically pleasing spaces for people to enjoy their city.

I have always been fascinated by fire. By no means does this mean that I am not afraid of it. As a child, growing up in the Athenian, suburban interface, but also in the Greek, Mediterranean, summery, rural landscape, fire was a familiar event to me. Even so, though, that doesn’t make it something less shocking, scary, and unwanted. Every time, every summer, the fear of a fire in the forests, in the mountains, in the pastures, a fire that spreads uncontrollably, and that can destroy landscapes, properties, lives, is deeply rooted in the Greek souls.
However, it was, is, and will continue to be a natural part of the ecosystem. Yet, it is the human actions that are responsible for the most destructive, unnatural, fires and wildfires, intentionally or not, directly or not, in the current times. And along with the global problem of climate change, the consequences on all aspects of nature and non-nature are devastating.
One of these most severe wildfires happened in Greece in 2018. The tragedy of Mati, in Eastern Attica, a once green, summery paradise, is recorded as the second-deadliest wildfire event of the 21st century, with 102 people confirmed dead.
And it was this tragic event that changed everything. People were killed, thousands of homes were destroyed, and tens of thousands of acres of forest were burned. Mati will not be the same again. And three years now, the memories are still there, painful memories that are engraved on people’s souls, and recalled by the also battered landscape.
This thesis project focuses on the two traumas that this fire caused, the Human Trauma, the human wound, caused by the fire experiencing, and the loss, and includes the Individual trauma, and the Collective-Community trauma, and the disrupted relationship of people and nature, and the Landscape Trauma, the trauma of the landscape that includes the direct and indirect tangible consequences of the fire, and the indirect tangible landscape degradation, when fires are repeated at relatively short intervals at the same place, and delay its regeneration.
But what is the role of space and design in the healing processes of both traumas? How to imprint and express on-site the memories in a cathartic way, in a way that the design itself can contribute to the recovery of people and the landscape, and the restoration of their relationship, even in avoiding the same mistakes?
The design intention is to create a public locus, a didactic, non-static, Living Memorial that will express and imprint these memories, contribute to the tangible and intangible healing processes, integrating fire-resilient, landscape design tools, in order to achieve atonement and a better relationship with nature and its phenomena, in order to show that fire is part of nature, destruction and loss is part of nature, we are part of nature, but the important is to bounce back every time, recover and heal, continue the cyclical journey of life, forgiving and learning from, but not forgetting, the past.

The project for a public bath in Belgrade offers a chance to reflect on the current transformations of the city. On the one hand, the rivers. The role that the Sava and the Danube played in the life of the city changed from borders to infrastructural arteries in the past century, turning the shores of the city into industrial areas. Connected by a railway that cut the city away from the river, these areas are today a dormant grey zone. As the Old Railway is being removed, the city can reconsider its relation to the water: what Belgrade will be reflected on the rivers? 
Taking into consideration the possibility of developments led by privatisation and land value, the project investigates what other approaches architecture can offer in considering the relation of the city to its territory. In order to root itself into the history of the city, the project revives a tradition which was recently interrupted: the one of public baths. Despite their diffused presence in the different cultures which contributed to today’s Belgrade, the segregation of bathing into the private sphere led all the baths in the city to shut their doors. Through a program that gathers collectivity and intimacy, protection and exposure, the projects aims at articulating a bath on a dismissed dock, on the edge of the city and the Sava river. In-between the body and the community, the city and the landscape, the baths aims at framing and connecting seemingly unrelated scales and experiences.

The purpose of this project is trying to find a way of bring the lost space in urban context back to the city as an active area.