Wasted: If the Walls Could Speak Installation
2023
Athens, Greece

Welcome to If the Walls Could Speak.  We have crafted an experience that allows the visitor to feel, see and touch the materials that make up our lived environment. It also brings attention to the myriad historical artifacts that persist in our midst, like not-so-hidden time travelers.

If the Walls Could Speak expands on tAS 4 2022 Waste Not Want Not’s focus of reducing waste, upcycling, and lowering carbon emissions in manufacturing and construction. If the Walls Could Speak highlights the skill and craftmanship of Greek manufactures and their global importance. We will also explore best practices for historic preservation in new construction and ways to reduce harmful environmental outcomes.

Perhaps most importantly, twenty first century Greece is being imagined, planned, and built now. Athens is not just a city with history, Athens is history. The city’s achievements are known all over the world. Unlike other ancient cities, Athens continues to be a vibrant cosmopolis even after millennia.

As Athens builds its’ future, If the Walls Could Speak wants to emphasize the value of the cultural, physical and creative past. As part of this emerging process, we encourage designers, builders and planners to imagine the yet-to-be-built environment incorporating existing material and structures that are already part of our physical historical terrain.

The materials we propose using have their own histories.  The reuse and repurposing of already existing infrastructure is different from reusing production waste. Using existing structures saves on carbon expenditure because each artifact’s lifespan has far exceeded the original extraction cost.

The ineffable quality of reinhabited buildings comes from the many lives lived in these structures: uncountable feet trod the floors, innumerable hands touched the surfaces and a many voiced chorus echoes through the spaces. Modern civilization began in ancient Athens through a cultural dynamism of social, political and artistic innovation; it was the model for the complex, advanced, influential global city.

We must accept the challenge to improve our collective future with forward looking sustainable ideas, designs, materials, structures and systems. We believe a clearer understanding of contemporary needs and solutions comes from cognizance of our place on the human historical continuum.

‘If the Walls Could Speak,’ the second installment of the ‘Wasted’ series of installations, was showcased in The Architect Show 2023.

Curation: John Veikos, Anna Sbokou
Design & Coordination:  John Veikos, Anna Sbokou, Ioanna Kotoula, Eirini Chatzi
Lighting Design: ASlight Studio
Content Editor: J. Ward Regan PhD
Graphic Design: MANGO ART
Signage: MARMOURIS, MANGO ART
Installation:  Karamalegos Bros. Giannis & Vasilis Vlachakis
Photography: Gavriil Papadiotis [GavriiLux]
Waste Material Providers and Fabricators: AggloTech, AL2, Apollon Design, Decospan, Electron, Eltop, Eva Papadopoulou, Flux Laboratory Athens, Inoxal by ETEM, Konstantinidis S.A., Kraft Paints, Machos Glass, Marmouris S.A., Marmyk Iliopoulos, Novamix, Rangahaus, SANELCO, Stonetech, The Fabulous Group, Twelve Concept, Unilin, VETA
Website: thearchitectshow.gr