A call for Greek designers

A few days ago I received this great e-mail from the well known in Greece CARTECO company, inviting the Greek designers from every section to sell their products through a dedicated website. I think it is a great opportunity so I post their "invitation" here:

CARTECO addresses an invite to GREEK industrial designers, graphic artists and artistic groups, who produce their products in small or large scale, manufactured, handmade or not, to a limited number or to order, and have a given business policy, to submit product details and information such as pictures etc. for sale in Greece and abroad through the new on-line store CARTECOSHOP.GR, which is under construction and will be soon on line.

The deadline is the end of February. It is not mandatory for participants to have a comprehensive collection or refined presentation, but certainly this will help. What interests us is for them to be able to guarantee quality and good design of the product and be consistent with our company and consumers. Be careful, we do not want to experiment with your ideas for the first time. We want ideas that are implemented and ready to fall in the market and become known to consumers. The product categories are general, i.e. objects, lighting, furniture, artwork, gifts, jewelry, silk screens, posters, textiles, etc. There is no restriction. Just be sure to get us all the necessary information quickly and to make us understand in as few words as possible exactly what it is that you do. The sales agreement for your projects through our website and our network is NOT exclusive and is not binding for any reason without any written agreement. Failure to accept the sale of products through our e-shop does not mean anything about the quality or the level of your work. We just cannot accept all the proposals or to cooperate with everyone. The products will be delivered to us finished, ready to pack for sale. Our company does not intend to enter a process of production, research and development of your project. If you are interested in selling or promote your products through our network, send us by e-mail to vpbartz@gmail.com the following:

• Black and white photograph of the designer or group
• Name and surname of the designer and the team
• Contact details, telephone, email, website or blog, Address.
• Small biography, information about previous activities, projects
• Products that are likely to be released or sold in our market or other shops. Up to 10 photos for each product that we propose for sale in our online store at the required resolution. Variations of the product. Potential variety of colors, versions, designs, etc. Product description, dimensions, materials. Delivery time by order of the day and whether there is a minimum order. Method of payment to you, your team or manufacturer.
• Sample if available (if in the end you are picked for the shop, you will be asked for one)
• Category sales and use, eg Artwork, sculpture, gift, furniture, etc
• Jpeg low resolution images (for web) in 2 sizes: 114X114 pix and 222X222 pix
• Text (in 2 languages): 250-300 words (1500-2000 characters including spaces)

Once selected, we will contact you to discuss the details of our cooperation and to require additional material to be posted on the website. Thank you very much for your attention and interest in cooperation.

The Archive, Episode 3: Supersurfaces

Episode 03: SUPERSURFACES

Opening: Friday 11th of December 2009 at 20:00 Free entrance

From the 12th of December 2009 until the 17th of January 2010 the entrance will be allowed only to members.

Episodes curators: Katerina Kotzia, Korina Filoksenidou

Catering Supporter: LES LAZARISTES, Domotel

The third architectural event to be hosted in The Archive space takes us through a journey to the endless world of supersurfaces. They are compositions derived from folding and transforming a single surface of paper or other flexible material.

The initiative and part of the show's material comes from the research work of the Special composition laboratory Supersurfaces taught by architect Sofia Vyzoviti at the Architecture department of the University Of Thessaly. An installation that is combined with the special characteristics of the space will be presented at The Archive.

The opening of the show mark one more creative meeting of The Archive members. Carteco, the company behind this original space and supporter of the Episodes is bound to regularly renew these rendez vous by hosting architectural events worthy of our attention.

The First Athens Architecture Workshop starts today!

The city of Athens rises to the north of the Acropolis in a vast plain of the Attican peninsula, dotted with low hills and circumscribed by mountains and unfolding to the south towards the sea. To the west of the city stands Mount Egaleo, to the North-West Mount Parnitha, to the North-East Mount Pentelikon and south-east the linear formation of Mount Ymittos. The ancient urban unity of Athens reached its highest level of completeness, Between the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. In this era the polis expanded across the plain from the “sacred rock” of the Acropolis to the sea with the “Great walls” to Piraeus, the port on the Saronic Gulf (Saronikos Kolpos).

WORKSHOP OBJECTIVE

IV century BC - After the Ottoman occupation the city grows beyond its ancient boundaries. Great roads unify the ancient to the new radially towards the North. Actually, the city occupies a vast area, which extends from the aforementioned circumscribing mountains to the sea on the South and from Marathon to Eleusis, east and west respectively. In its contemporary urban form, two images of the city coexist, that of the ancient city integrated with that of the neoclassical period, on one hand and that of the diffused city as a result of the spontaneous growth of the modern metropolis, on the other. Nevertheless, the signs of the ancient city have remained as “indelible” components in the memory of contemporary Athens, which through the years has “rewritten” its history on the ancient traces.

Seven sites have been chosen for the purposes of this workshop, located between the ancient and the 19th century areas of the city centre. These sites, of course, have diverse characteristics due to their location, ranging from residual areas within the consolidated urban fabric, to areas in direct relation with the geological formations in the centre of the urban environment of the city. The objective of the workshop is to attribute an identity and scale to these sites and to inquire through the design process, their hidden potential.

1 • Lycabettus
Between the hill and
surrounding urban tissue
2 • Leoforos Alexandras
Between ‘Pedion tou Areos’ park &
‘Prosfygika’ district
3 • Lykeion park & Liberty park
Cultural garden chain
4 • Plateia Klafthmonos
Between the Neoclassical Triangle & the
Lycabettus district
5 • Plateia Koumoundourou
Between the Neoclassical Triangle & the
Metaxourgeion district
6 • Neoclassical Triangle
Study of its public spaces
7 • Stathmos Larissis
Athens railway complex

Check the program here.

Update: The Archive Episode 2: First day photos

I attended The Archive: Episode Two opening at the Archive space of Thessaloniki. The set up was brilliant, a single shape running around more than half the space, made of many separate smaller shapes of PVC laser cut and printed with the images and drawings of the three architects that designed the Central Square of the Municipality of Thermi: Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou and Spiros I. Papadimitriou. The last day of the event is today, so anyone who has not seen it yet, it is your last chance (access to Archive members only, but you can still see it from the outside if you are not a member).

A projection was also made on the undulating surface.

On the small digital screens one could see a slideshow of the preparation for the event.

The image that greets passers-by from the shop-window.

Another series of photographs of the square. The little blue LED light strip on top of the exhibition surface was an interesting finishing touch.

Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou, Vassilios P. Bartzokas, Spiros I. Papadimitriou, Korina Filoxenidou and Katerina Kotzia

Lots of architects, designers and people that love design and architecture came to the event.

THE ARCHIVE EPISODE 02: Moving Surfaces, Generate Public Space

Episode 02: “MOVING SURFACES generate public space” is inspired by the redesign of the Central Square of the Municipality of Thermi, one of the most interesting urban design projects realised in Greece.

The dynamic form of the square is the result of the use of specific digital animation techniques. Its form is a new material expression, a result of the dynamic behaviours and actions performed. The informal architecture of the oblique and the imbalance is tempting its users to interact with its folded surfaces and provokes new behaviours and unexpected programs. The project has recently received a Distinction at the Architectural Awards 2008 of the Hellenic Institute of Architecture.

In the hybrid enclosed space of the Archive the architects of the square, Dimitris Kontaxakis, Maria-Eleni Kosmidou and Spiros I. Papadimitriou are going to present an installation, through which they will explore a different way of exhibiting a built architectural project. The installation is a deep surface that embeds the required information for the exhibition and at the same time becomes an exhibit itself by generating a new spatial experience in the interior of Archive.

The opening of the exhibition will give an opportunity to the members of The Archive for another creative meeting. Carteco, the company behind The Archive will regularly renew this appointment through the hosting of interesting architectural events and projects.

The Archive Episodes is a project by Katerina Kotzia and Korina Filoxenidou

EPISODE 02:
MOVING SURFACES
GENERATE PUBLIC SPACE
Opening: Tuesday, 23/06/09 at 20:00 at The Archive, Mitropoleos St. 127, Thessaloniki
24/06/09 – 25/07/09 (access to members only)


Photos: Giorgis Gerolympos

Architecture Workshop in Athens!

The very first Architecture Workshop, titled (what else?) "1st Athens Architecture Workshop", will take place in Athens, with the initiative of architect Nikos Ktenas and the invaluable participation of Vassilios P. Bartzokas, with Carteco as a sponsor and Brainlab as support. The whole thing is under the aegis of the Municipality of Athens.

This international architecture workshop will take place from the 21st of July until the 2nd of August, in Athens. It is aimed at foreign and Greek students of Architecture as well as young architects working abroad. Prominent personalities of European Architecture will be teaching : Aires Mateus, Piere Allain Croset, Antonio Tejedor, Μichel Kagan, Nikos Ktenas and others. During the workshop, lectures open to the public will be given by João Luís Carrilho da Graça (Lisbon), Antonio Citterio (Milan), Aurelio Galfetti (Lugano), Franco Purini (Rome), while an exhibition of the projects will be organized and a special catalogue published.

The aim is to give the possibility, through a detached view of prominent architects but of young architects too, to form architectural proposals for particular areas within Athens. Seven locations in the city centre have been chosen for this reason. These locations gather endogenously as well as between them a variety of disparate characteristics, and are spotlighted as study areas so that they can acquire a contemporary identity that will highlight their particularity and character.

This undertaking is a challenge to all, participants and teachers as well as citizens of Athens (who will be able to be the recipients of this projects results - an alternative look on their city's public space reality), as a research on one of the oldest cities of Europe, with its particularity of historical, geographical and cultural elements. In other words, this architecture workshop places contemporary Athens in the place of a city whose public space has to be confronted henceforth with an architectural conscience and sensibility from all, beginning mainly from an academic research level that expects to be extended as a collective conscience.

The workshop is addressed to new architects but also to graduate and postgraduate students of architecture and the attendance costs 350 Euros per individual. Everyone will be dealt with on a first come-first served basis. A bulletin of attendance and more information are available at http://www.aa-w.net

The Archive: a unique space opens in Thessaloniki

CARTECO, one of the leading importers of decorative and architectural materials and furniture in Greece, has made a bold move in the course of perfecting its collaboration with designers and architects. THE ARCHIVE, opening in Thessaloniki first (Mitropoleos Street 127), will be a library of materials, architectural solutions and decoration that will also work as an exhibition space for architecture.


In a space of no more than 25 square meters, THE ARCHIVE collects most necessary tools for an architect in the realization of his/her projects. A big library of catalogues and samples from CARTECO and its collaborators, up to date publications from Greece and abroad about architecture, industrial design and graphic design, three I-mac computers with free Internet access as well as a projector connected to a computer available to the user for programmed presentations or free use of it for presentations to clients or colleagues or even a student presenting his thesis. There is also a WI FI spot with free fast Internet access so that the user can connect his own computer and work there. Dock stations for I-pods are also available - you can listen to your favourite music while working there too!

THE ARCHIVE is available 24 hours a day, with the use of a personalized entrance card. This card will be provided without charge to anyone interested, them of course being architects or designers or of relative field. This unique and breakthrough idea is a product of the never ending efforts of CARTECO to assist architects, interior designers and the design community, by giving them a sense of freedom for creativity, inspiration, study and work. THE ARCHIVE aspires to become a dynamic meeting point for creative people in the city, as through a series of events programmed throughout the year, it will keep in touch with Greek and international developments in architecture and design. So go get yourself a card, I have already registered!

THE ARCHIVE is the result of a creative team working alongside the vision of Vassilios P. Bartzokas, CEO of CARTECO. The space was designed by architects Katerina Kotzia and Korina Filoksenidou, while all communication design, environmental graphics and press items were designed by mnp.

THE ARCHIVE website was designed by beetroot design group. You can find more information there and also apply on-line for your entrance card. The site will soon be fully functional.


As mentioned earlier, guided by the wish to become a point of reference for the architects and designers of the city, THE ARCHIVE through “THE ARCHIVE episodes” will host a number of architectural events during the year. The premier episode will launch in October in coordination with the project “Athens by Sound”- Official Greek Participation in the 11th Biennale of Architecture in Venice, curated by Anastasia Karandinou, Christina Achtypi and Stylianos Giamarelos.


The “Athens by Sound” team will declare its presence in Thessaloniki inaugurating THE ARCHIVE episodes with a sound installation. Parallel to the exhibition in Venice and always in accordance with their project, the curators will bring selected Venice sounds to the city. The architectural event will begin in October along with the official opening of THE ARCHIVE, and will last until the end of the Venice Biennale on November 23rd.

P.S. Check out the Flickr photo set of the space in Thessaloniki.