Crisis, appears to be many things. It manifests itself as a natural unavoidable phenomenon. It also acts as a catalyst. Crisis cannot be anything less than a result of choices and specific actions within this system. A result having moved further to becoming a machine. A Crisis Machine.
Numbers and commodities have been granted priority, ultimately competing against life. The Crisis Machine is installed inside the void of the increasing distance between those who possess much and those who have little or no access. It is installed inside the gap between public and private, with private interest competing against the collective interest and the collective often caught dormant.
The Crisis Machine behaves as a parasitoid, extending its threads as traps for the future. It is maintained through imposing scarcity, be it space, food or water, be it housing, be it access, be it funds, be it time. It is fed by results from applied local and global policies, military, economic and class warfare: displacement, unemployment, poverty, homelessness, exploitation, indifference, despair, a heavily charged ecosystem… the list is long. Results that are imprinted gravely both in the mental and the physical space.
Architecture seems to be having an identity crisis. Is Architecture part of this Crisis Machine? Does she have a place amongst people fighting for basics or survival, is she mere luxury, accessible to few? Does this lead to a sui generis marginalization of architecture while distancing her from the social? Can the millions of today’s persecuted and marginalized be the architect’s clientèle? Was architecture ever a common good, or an unfulfilled promise? Can architects through participating in collective processes contribute towards sustainable societies? Can the political being, empathy for the real Other be linked to architecture as a collective production?
In order for architecture to not disperse inside specialization and endless fragmentation, to have a say and be a response, she has to rediscover and process her social self, her collective self. She needs to assess her political stance. She cannot accept the new cities for three million inhabitants or twelve or twenty to be enclosed container-camp cities like Al Zaatari where the nightmare machine is at work. Tailing after market dictates reduces Architecture to a maker of sleek images. There has to be more for Architecture, more than competing on designs of the fanciest villa, or super-budget colossal structures, or another tourist attraction. There ought to be more to the interaction between architects and society than a mere professional/client relationship or proposing -imposing new fashion and exploitation standards. Bowing to the ever more extravagant demands of over-consumption… The commons, the collective and social need to be rediscovered, away from oppression. Hence, our main proposition: the emancipation of the Architects inside the collective.

15th International Architecture Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

Greek Pavilion
Association of Greek Architects
#ThisIsACo-Op

The Architecture of Crisis and/or the Crisis of Architecture
In collaboration with Julie Psallida