Here is the edit of the documentary film ‘Urban Evaporative Cooling and the Ecological Semiotics of Heat and Pollution in Athens’ made for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 with Greek subtitles
Category: Building
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Evaporative Cooling in Athens at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
Although I wasn’t happy initially with the difference between my proposed layout and the actual installation (screens too low, drawing too small, cramped space blah blah ..), I made my peace with it, and even liked it by the end :)As @godofredo_enes reviewed: ‘it’s not bad!’
It is nice to note that Phineas Harper favourably mentioned us and our fellow travellers Vessel in his review https://artreview.com/venice-architecture-biennale-2025-review-a-tech-bro-fever-dream-phineas-harper/
The two films we made are wonderful (thanks again to @linnphyllisseeger and @gemmariggsfilm) and we’ll be exhibiting them again this summer at Rheomode Athens (and maybe in London), and will make them available online very soon (at www.towersofwinds.org and here). Thanks to the team Aran Chadwick (Atelier One), Flora McLean (RCA Fashion), Rosa Schiano-Phan and Juan Vallejo (University of Westminster) and Dimitra Vlami (Rheomode Athens) and the support of Royal College of Art (esp Adrian Lahoud and the School of Architecture) and many friends and allies inc @jamesbridle and @latraacskatecafe @enacting_eco_aesthetics and many others #labiennaledivenezia -
Towers of Winds at Venice Biennale 2025
We’re busy nearing completion of material for our small installation of two film pieces in dialogue – one channelling the eco-mental systems of Athena by Linn Phyllis Seeger, and the other a documentary of our research-in-progress by Gemma Riggs – for the Venice Biennale 2025 curated by Carlo Ratti on the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective
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‘Urban Evaporative Cooling and the Ecological Semiotics of Heat and Pollution in Athens’ research-in-progress to be exhibited at Venice Biennale 2025
Very happy to announce, after several months of discussions, that our work on evaporative cooling, heat and pollution in Athens, will be exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale.
The curator Carlo Ratti has set the theme Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective., which connects well with the ‘eco-mental’ and semiotic framing I have given our broader urban evaporative cooling research…
The curators asked if it was possible to construct a full scale tower, which would have been amazing, but which would not have worked well without complete reimagining, as Venice is already evaporatively cooled by the canals and lagoon!
Instead, we are enjoying working on a two screen film installation piece which will be presented in the ‘Artificial Intelligens’ section, in the Corderie building of the Arsenale, in one of the curator Carlo Ratti’s main curated spaces on ‘Intelligens’.
The core project team is myself as Project Lead and P-I (at both RCA and Rheomode, where Dimitra Vlami is helping to project manage), Aran Chadwick from Atelier One structural engineers, Flora McLean, also from RCA (Fashion and textiles), and Rosa Schiano-Phan and Juan Vallejo from University of Westminster. In addition we are working collaboratively with the filmmakers Gemma Riggs and Linn Phyllis Seeger on producing material for the installation and online.
Many thanks to the Royal College of Art – both the Research Office and the School of Architecture in particular – for supporting this project, and to the University of Westminster and Atelier One for additional support.
Many thanks also to the support of local allies such as Latraac Skate Bar and Urban Garden and Zachos Varfis, artist-writer James Bridle, the Municipality of Athen Heat Officer Elissavet Bargianni and UN Habitat Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili.
Filmed at Latraac Athens during pre-prototype testing July 2024 -
Dry Stone Wall volunteer repair and training on Amorgos
Spent 21-26th October 2024 on Amorgos with Dimitra participating in the third Mitato dry stone wall repair and building training workshop and volunteer labour programme, led by the excellent https://mitato-amorgos.com/en/
We worked on repairing several hundred meters of the main foot-donkey path near Potamos on Amorgos
Some essential dry stone walls theory classes in the evenings…
And discussion around their and other groups organising on and around these landscapes.
I have several hundred meters of terraces and dry stone walls that need repair and maintenance at Rheomode Ikaria, so this was invaluable for that work…
