In April 2023, towards the end of the academic year, ARCSR organised a two-day symposium, bringing together existing and new partners to establish a collaborative, interdisciplinary and international research group focused on questions of housing, social infrastructure and people in displacement in Athens, laying the groundwork for a larger project proposal in Athens in 2023-24.

This initiative was made possible thanks to a small rescaling grant from London Metropolitan University, and the ongoing support of The Water Trust (ARCSR). The symposium was organised and hosted by Dr
Bo Tang and Sara Golnabi.

 

Context
Since 2016, the focus of ARCSR’s work in Athens has been on migration and refugees, place-based architecture, and home-making, as a means to
enhance the capacity of ‘arrival’ residents and their support networks to imagine and transform the context in which they live.

After the Arrival City (2022-25) addresses the close of the European refugee housing support programme (ESTIA), bringing about great uncertainty for an estimated 13,000 people in Athens, who have sought
to make the city their home in recent years. The project seeks to understand how a city without an existing model for rented social housing can adapt to find new ways to support and accommodate people in displacement. Taking a place-based architectural approach, the project aims to support the development of robust and equitable research
partnerships with local and international institutions working in Athens on questions of migration and urban development, housing and social infrastructure.

Programme
Day 1:
- An introduction to ARCSR by Dr Bo Tang
- Student Pecha Kucha presentations - Unit 06
- Guest presentations by Rania Dimitriou & Haris
Biskos
- Seminar discussion workshop led by Annika
Grafweg & Martha Giannakopoulou
Day 2:
- Roundtable discussion - ARCSR and invited
guests