oto
Los Angeles is notorious for its private car-based transportation, although the biggest disadvantage of the privately owned car is too many resources for too little effect. When one or two persons are transported by car they utilize the engine and two seats, but the remaining seats, as well as the trunk, represent wasted resources for that specific transportation period. All that waste leads to a reasonable question:
“What if we were able to dissect a working car into working components that could be utilized according to given circumstances?”
Those components would concern the engine, cabin, and trunk. Contemporary cars do not offer the choice between those three components, and you cannot have one without the other, but it is possible that in the future LA people will be able to own only the cabin, and through AI centrally controlled circulation, they could create a temporary assembly-unit; an ephemeral design that would serve their “exact” needs on demand.
Los Angeles would be able to invite its people and visitors to streets liberated from the old overflow of vehicles and readily accommodate their needs.
"oto" was one of five finalists of the LA Auto Show's Automobility Designer/Developer Challenge 2017 and was invited to present the idea live at the Los Angeles Convention center Auto Show.
THE BIG BEND
There is an undeniable obsession that resides in Manhattan. It is undeniable because it is made to be seen. There are many different ways that can make a building stand out, but in order to do so the building has to literary stand out.
We have become familiar with building height measurements. We usually learn about the latest tallest building and we are always impressed by it’s price per square foot. It seems that a property’s height operates as a license for it to be expensive.
New York city’s zoning laws have created a peculiar set of tricks trough which developers try to maximize their property’s height in order to infuse it with the prestige of a high rise structure. But what if we substituted height with length? What if our buildings were long instead of tall?
If we manage to bend our structure instead of bending the zoning rules of New York we would be able to create one of the most prestigious buildings in Manhattan. The longest building in the world. The Big Bend can become a modest architectural solution to the height limitations of Manhattan. We can now provide our structures with the measurements that will make them stand out without worrying about the limits of the sky.
Ioannis Oikonomou ( design architect )
2017
EMERGING BALCONIES
2016
GLASNOST
For a reality tv president you have to have a reality tv oval office.
Let’s turn it inside out in order to see who is going to be the first to be fired.
The Oval Office is the official office of the President of the United States in the White House.
Every new president redecorates the Oval Office to give a personal touch and reflect their ideals.
The project, as a conceptual idea, turns the office inside-out by way of re-arranging its furniture centrifugally.
The title of the project ‘Glasnost’ means in Russian ‘the fact of being public’.
The term was made into a slogan for increased government transparency by Mikhail Gorbachev.
Team:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Dimitra Tsachrelia, Eirini Tsachrelia
2014-2016
CONSUME
Edible translucent colored gelatin, vinyl mold, monofilament line
Dimensions approximately
11’6” x 4’6” x 10” (3,5 x 1,4 x 0.25 m)
CONSUME is a site-specific installation at Immersive Gallery, located in Brooklyn, in a former warehouse, on a site threatened to be consumed by development. The installation is edible and it remains until the audience consumes it all.
Ioannis Oikonomou, Eirini Tsachrelia
2016
ACROPOLIS OF THESSALONIKI
Revival of a historical landmark at the crown of the city
Responding both to the need for public space and the modern promotion aspirations of Thessaloniki the synthetic process chooses to organize the precincts of Eptapirgio as a spatial crown, a halo, which derives its radiance through the disciplining of flows, functions and lighting in the form of an eloquent ring.
concerning the flowsthe new ring undertakes to highlight the timeless synergy between the Fort of the Acropolis and its walls. Simultaneously it tackles to formulate a center-point, to which all the flows of the synthesis as well as the supralocal and local uses converge radially.
The use of the ring as an outdoor museum of Thessaloniki arises through the visual advantages offered by its typology, providing an urban importance. At the same time the ring, serves as a carrier of luminaires, converting it into a bright path, which produces a visual effect, that differentiates and underlines the Fort as the culmination of fortifications.
In order to lay the groundwork for a smooth, gradual familiarization between the new landmark and its visitors, as a final move, the composition attempts to incorporate as a component time itself. Considering the future archaeological revelations of the area, the synthetical centroid is converted into a gradually formed archaeological site, which deconstructs the existing square, completes the ellipse of the ring around Eptapyrgio and gives to the visitor the opportunity to observe its urban evolution.
Location:
Eptapyrgio area, Thessaloniki, Greece
Project team:
Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris
2013
THE FINE ARTS BUILDING
Renovation / New York
Team: Ioannis Oikonomou, Eirini Tsachrelia
Completion 2014
TORCH
The building is designed as an narrative of constant negotiation between building and the local natural environment. It offers a merging with the sea, while positioning itself in such a manner that prevents the noise and unwanted views from neighboring uses the pedestrian promenade. At the same time it is imagined as an object in a state of continuous semi-permanence, always ready to be disassembled in order to emerge somewhere else.
Status: Concept Design
Client: Future Capital Partners
Type: Restaurant-Bar
Location: Budva, Montenegro
Architects: Io.Oikonomou, I.Milosevic
2014
MONTENEGRO PAVILION
Location: Milan, Italy
Investor: "Expo-Milano 2015 Office" Montenegro
Architects:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Ivan Milosevic
2014
GUGGENHEIM EXTENSION STORY
What if we decided we needed a little more of Guggenheim ?
Its famous ramps would continue their ascent “completing” the atrium under the glass roof. The vertical “completion” of Guggenheim would lead to the formation of an internal cone at the peak of which the circular ramp would become a homogeneous level, the last floor of the museum. The glass roof becomes a light source, diffusing it’s rays towards the interior. However, the Guggenheim museum has become so iconic, so emblematic and hermetic in our minds that it can no longer be touched by architects! Even if his own creator were to propose an alternation of its form, New Yorkers would suddenly feel as if they have lost a dear old friend. In a building loaded with symbolism even the story of its alteration could become its extension.
*Image one contains part of the scene of the movie “New York stories” (1989) as well as a Woody Allen famous quote
*Image eight constitutes the alteration of the front cover of New Yorker magazine
architect:
Ioannis Oikonomou
2013
BAR EXTENSION
Architects:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Maria Koutsari
2011
NYCity2
The city of urban desires
NYCity2 project is one of the 8 awarded visionary proposals for the future of Manhattan’s street grid organized by the Architectural League in partnership with the Museum of the City of New York.
NYCity2 is an attempt to redefine the city based on the desires of it’s own inhabitants. For this reason a platform is created which hovers above the city unrestrained by the limitations of the conventional urban fabric.
NYCity2 does not use any sort of official city planning tool. It’s form occurs from the accumulation of desires, which is not affected by any sort of institutional restrictions. A reverse system of city planning is formulated using as it’s sole design tool the individual perception of the inhabitants, freed from the reluctance of reality.
1. Fill in the communication form describing the attributes of your desire.
2. Your desire is channeled to NYC architecture offices which undertake it’s formulation and placement on the hovering platform.
3. You can now click on your chosen square in order to see your desire becoming true in NYCity2.
4.Or you can visit the construction site itself and check it out ‘though the eyes’ of your smartphone.
project team:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Fotis Sagonas
2011
CONFESSION SPOT
MyCity2 / confession spot / symbiosis? - 15 Biennale de la Mediterranée Thessaloniki / Rome 2011
Mycity2 Confession Spot is an installation which serves as a direct link with Mycity2. It constitutes a hovering cube made of white cloth which surrounds a lectern to where the inhabitants of the city is able to confess their urban desires.
Instead of a book, on the lectern rests a lap top through which the inhabitants can choose the location and write down their desire by clicking the corresponding square of the platform. They can fill in the communication form describing the attributes of their desire and then their urban desire is channeled to architecture offices of the city which undertake it’s formulation and placement on the hovering platform.
After that the inhabitants can click on their chosen square in order to see their desire becoming true in Mycity2.
Ioannis Oikonomou, Fotis Sagonas
2011
THE GUNS OF ARCHITECTURE
Iconic architecture dominated the West for the past century. Now the rest of the world is intoxicated with architectural clones through which they can demonstrate the vast amounts of money a society is able to waste on buildings instead of its people.
Western architecture has become the new opium for the new oriental super states which consume it in order to demonstrate their power. But there lies an inconvenient truth behind the spectacular facades. This neo colonial architecture is realized through labor conditions which resembles slavery. Once more we can witness the degradation of societies around the world through the introduction of western weapons. This time the weapons are not disease and gun powder, they are symbols of status whose form is dictated by the western elite.
Western architecture has become the new weapon of colonization. Western architects have become the new guns against the societies.
In that respect each and every Biennale constitutes a gun fair, but this time Rem Koolhas chose not to show us the new guns of architecture. There are no starchitects in the Biennale. This time Koolhas decided to show us the components of the guns. The pieces which formulate contemporary architecture. The mechanism behind the trigger. Could that be the psychoanalysis of a guilty conscience?
Download free images for t-shirt printing
or you can order them here:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Gregory Vegliris
The original photos presented in this article have been technically processed.
The architects shown in the pictures have exemplarily chosen.
We express our respect and esteem for the architects themselves and for their work.
This project is merely a contribution to scientific and artistic dialog.
2014
JADRAN
4th place in International architectural competition for the conceptual architectural – urban design of hotel “STARI GRAD ULCINJ”, total design area 24.015 m2, government of the republic of Montenegro - Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Ulcinj, Montenegro.
Jadran hotel lays on top of a 30 meters cliff overlooking the city Ultsini in the Adriatic. The synthetic problem included the presence of the town - monument opposite to the rock, the large size of the building and the morphology of the rock. The solution which was finally chosen was based on ideas that have already been implemented by residents to address the steep slopes of the rock. The form of the hotel was adjusted in order to resemble the existing terraces in an attempt to adapt the form of the complex on the flows and the geometry of
the rock. Following the ridges and peaks of the rock the terraces are integrated on the site and the morphological surface of the rock. At the pick of the rock the composition tackles to prevent the emergence of a visual competitor and tries to enhance the visual relationship that already exists between the cliff and the historic city.
Location:
Ulcinj, Montenegro
Competition team :
Ioannis Oikonomou, Ivan Milosevic
2012
CITY HORISON
2nd Place in International architectural competition “Urban and architectural design of waterfront Tivat “Pine”, area 9900m2, Municipality of the City of Tivat, Montenegro.
The urban design problem concerning the urbanization of a former militarized zone and it’s transformation into a international touristic destination came to surface through the urban regeneration of the pier of Tivat. Through the analysis of the architectural question it became apparent that the real issue revolves around the problematic relationship between the wharf and the surrounding area as well as the urban role which is able to play. In this sense the pier can be seen as an urban core that manages the flows of the city. In order to operate in this manner, the pier should be linked in a bigger degree to the city center and also have direct communication with the north and south side of the town. For this to happen the pier itself must to be completed to a certain point of it’s surface. Covering the existing gap of the pier, the city’s front facing the street becomes a bigger, including the former military zone. This way the whole pier is transformed into a square, ready to be connected to the rest of the city through the management of materials.
Location: Tivat, Montenegro
Competition team :
Ioannis Oikonomou, Ivan Millocevic
2011
HIDDEN EXPOSITION
The compositional process is orientated towards the re-emergence of the Public Theatre as a landmark, emphasizing not only on its past but also on its attributes as a piece of contemporary architecture.
The architectural intervention attempts to confront the present state of collective social disapproval towards the public theatre through the formation of a visual exaltation. This attempt is organized as a vocabulary of architectural choices which aims to the integration of the building to the function of the city. Taking advantage of the adaptation abilities of contemporary architectural morphology, facing the demands of the urban landscape the composition attempts to provide the elements of a direct relationship between the city and the building. As a result of that relationship a dynamic public space is produced, capable of enriching the symbolic capital of the city through the introduction of a multitude of urban experiences in an urban landscape already chromed by memory.
National competition entry, Municipal theater of Corfu, Greece
Team:
Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris, D.Moysiadis, K.Panopoulos, X.Tsitsikas
2010
ARCHITECTURE OF EARTH
1st prize at the International competition ‘Sustainable Architecture’ Fassa Bortolo, Ferrara, Italy.
The site of the project is located in the center of city of Ioannina.The area is separated in upper and lower region, which leads to the zone by the lake. This intention of the city is remarkable and thus the project is oriented to (focuses on) the unification of the two regions. The development of a new building is meant to integrate an already existing well-shaped cluster of public buildings, which aim at unifying the two regions. A public library with a reading room is selected to be the function of a new building, which will reinforce the effort of unification.
The central reading room is to be located within the park, because of the need for isolation.
The building is located subterranean, with an orientation to the south. It attempts to be adapted to the natural landscape, defining however as well, the cluster of the buildings, which consists of new and old ones. With its arrangement, it tries to communicate with its surroundings, which refer not only to the natural landscape but also to memory.
It concerns a subterranean building with two wings. The southern wing looks like a fissure of the ground, forming the entrance. The northern wing consists of a ramp, which can take down the stroller smoothly, from the upper to the lower region, thus contributing to their unification.
Architect: Ioannis Oikonomou
2008
PARK TO PARK
Park to Park is a project which blends low cost strategies and the utilization of unusable cityscape in order to promote the city’s future urban regeneration.
Park to park idea is based on the city’s constant need for mature trees as necessary parts of it’s future urban regeneration schemes. The city’s future always demands the presence of mature trees making urban regenerations an even more expensive prospect.
Park to park project proposes to confront the cost of the future by turning it into an advantage of the city today.
The proposition dictates the creation of a network of urban tree nurseries situated in areas which at the moment are empty of any function.
In those nurseries young trees will be left to mature after they have been purchased cheaply, keeping the plantation cost low.
This network will eventually supply the future regeneration with low cost mature trees.
The tree nursery consists of low cost boxes made out of wooden pallets.
The maturing box will eventually be used as transportation container.
The result of this process is a park organized in wooden boxes where trees grow waiting to be transported to their final destination.
By growing it’s own trees the city cuts down the cost of it’s future regeneration. In the mean time while waiting for the trees to mature the city offers us a piece of it’s future today.
Architects:
Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris
2008
GV
architect: Ioannis Oikonomou
2010
MEETING THE SEA THROUGH MEMORY
2nd Place in National architectural competition for the ‘Regeneration and Reuse of the Western Historical Docks and their surroundings’,
Municipality of the City of Iraklion.
Gathering all those flows in a common point of convergence a landmark is created which concentrates and diffuses visually the flows of the city operating as spatial tool for the portrayal of the city’s function. The interior of the urban sack is organized in three thematic spaces the cohesion of which is promoted through the mixing of the lements of the contemporary role of the monument with the remnants of the old.
Competition team:
Io.Oikonomou, Gregory Vegliris, Steve Dimitriou
2010
MELIMILON
architect: Ioannis Oikonomou
2008
HOMEMADE HOMEMAKING
The settlement by the proliferation of design and construction of into the flow of residence, acquire detectable stages, giving his first story. The re-taken by rubbing the responsibility of planning and construction lead to a redefinition of its relationship with the ‘home’.
The resident is now free to act creatively, which cut any excuse for indifference. By adjusting the sides and the floor plan in accordance with pre-missiles which he regards as important, it trains itself. Freed from the confidence that will give a good deal of uncertainty and an instant-by tychimenis.
Competition team:
Io.Oikonomou, G.Vegliris
2007
INHABITABLE SLOT
A perfect slot was created in order to lead the ocean water right next to the house. The inhabitation of the slot edges' serves the sence of living on a small beach. This slot is the a junction representing the meeting of two elements, water and earth. Due to the different heat capacity of these two elements, a light air 'aura' blows day and night, which can be used for a physical air cooling of the house.
Team:
Io.Oikonomou, D.Mousiadis, X.Tsitsikas
2009
MYCITY2
mycity2 is a platform which hovers over your city.
It is a city which is being raised now and is in need of desires.
Send your desire to the architects and monitor it’s implementation.
mycity2 is an attempt to re-build your city starting from scratch by putting aside any obstacles from the past. For this reason, a flying platform ready to welcome you is placed over city. A contact form allows you to have your own place in the new city.
project team:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Fotis Sagonas
2011
NIGHT AT THE OCCUPIED MUSEUM
On Friday the 27th of January 2012 a wall went through an artist at the second floor of the New York MOMA. The same time two cleaning ladies take a peek from the last floor of the museum, an employee timidly comes closer to look at the people gathering. Two young guys in the crowd quietly try to figure out what the next day will look like.
Ioannis Oikonomou
2012
PEARL
The compositional effort aims to the creation of a new landmark, the importance of which is based not on its size but on its role towards the creation of a visual coherent connection between the old and the new city. The future buildings of block 39 are arranged in a Π shaped complex with a inner courtyard which takes the form of an atrium as soon as we add the volume of the Centre. The building itself is organized is as a cluster of lines which curves up the physical landscape. The functions of the Centre are articulated between the incisions forming three distinctive zones. In the centre of the plan the incisions are cut forming an atrium which regulatores the functions of the building. At the western part of the plan a grid is organized in order to accommodate the more introvert functions of the Centre . All the offices of the administration area are situated in this area forming a linear hierarchy of institutional uses. Access to this area is given by the atrium. The western façade overlooks on a water surface providing the area with natural light and visual qualities. In the centre of the plan the most exocentric area of the building is organized as the circulation regulator of the building. The atrium which is formed by the recession of the cutting lines accommodates the main morphological attraction of the building : the planetarium. Apart from its visual qualities the planetarium is very important for the inner circulation of the building, as it regulates the access to all function areas. Through the atrium surrounding the planetarium one is capable of reaching the administration area as well as the amphitheater and the exposition area.
architect: Ioannis Oikonomou
2010
ΑRΕΤΗΑ
10 suite/ hotel
The architectural composition takes place in an area dominated by the river Aoos and it is marked by the remnants of an old watermill. The tension of the mountain elations, the serene presence of the river, the watermill as well as the stone bridge of Konitsa nearby formulate a mixture of memory and natural beauty which is used as the raw material of a contemporary synthetic process.
Location: Konitsa, Greece
Architects:
Ioannis Oikonomou, Xaris Tsitsikas
2009
HARVEST IN-CITU
Celebrating Sukkot in the inner city constitutes a challenge in terms of its preparation process. Even though the form of the city sukkah might resembles that of the original sukkahs of the desert, its preparation is based on totally different elements. In the boundaries of the city no fruits are gathered from any trees as the harvest has already taken place far away. Citron, myrtle and the fruit of the palm tree, three of the Four Species are unlikely to be found. Harvest in the city context loses its original meaning. Instead of a collective process it becomes a symbol, a meaningful word, a memory. All the above generate the challenge of bringing about the elements of the actual preparation process which has substituted that of the harvest. In the boundaries of the city context fruits and roots, branches and leaves are all concentrated and provided in the same way. The different ways of gathering are substituted by the same simplified process of groceries purchase. Trees and fields are substituted by crates where the products form a condensed urban harvest. In this sense the form of the crate loses its utilitarian nature and becomes a sincere depiction of the adaptation of the sukkah’s preparation process in the inner city.
team:
Io.Oikonomou, Eva Karagiozidou
2010
JEANS GEOMETRY
Architects:
Io.Oikonomou, X.Tsitsikas
2009
CANNIBALIZING EXISTING STRUCTURES
Documenting spaces on the fringes of society and finding the astonishing in the commonplace.
And he bestowed on it the shape which was befitting and akin. Now for that Living Creature which is designed to embrace within itself all living creatures the fitting shape will be that which comprises within itself all the shapes there are; wherefore He wrought it into a round, in the shape of a sphere, equidistant in all directions from the center to the extremities, which of all shapes is the most perfect and the most self-similar, since He deemed that the similar is infinitely fairer than the dissimilar. And on the outside round about, it was all made smooth with great exactness, and that for many reasons… For movement He assigned unto it that which is proper to its body, namely, that one of the seven motions which specially belongs to reason and intelligence; wherefore He spun it round uniformly in the same spot and within itself and made it move revolving in a circle; and all the other six motions He took away and fashioned it free from their aberrations.
Such, then, was the sum of the reasoning of the ever-existing God concerning the god which was one day to be existent, whereby He made it smooth and even and equal on all sides from the center, a whole and perfect body compounded of perfect bodies... Plato’s World-Soul
Timaeus 33c-34a
Ioannis Oikonomou
2006
Exhibition ‘DEMO #2 Architecture’, participation with study ‘Cannibalizing existing structures’, Thessaloniki ‘Dynamo project-space gallery’, December 2010.
THE BRAIN PIECE
Set concept and design: The Brain Piece is a choreographed experience, a union of movement, film, neuroscience and sound, giving audiences an interactive and intuitive opportunity to engage with their minds in motion. The Brain Piece, directed and written by Jody Oberfelder, is a choreographed experience bridging art and science. This project is about "the dance" that continuously takes place in each of our heads. This immersive performance allows the audience to experience dance as a language going directly into the brain, like smell, allowing one to become acutely present inside the theater of their own brain activity. The Brain Piece examines how the mind works-- how neurons that wire together fire together. Creating tangible personal experiences, The Brain Piece allows the audience the opportunity to find moments of self-revelation as they journey temporally through the piece, discovering how the society within one's own brain interacts with the world.
The first round of showings took place in NYC at Dixon Place (April 29, 2015) and in Canada (Guelph Dance Festival, June 6, 2015).
Conceived, Written, and Directed by Jody Oberfelder
Choreographed in collaboration with dancers: Ben Follensbee, Mary Madsen, Madeline Wilcox
Brain Docents: Jordan Holland, Madison Krekel, Lindsey Mandolini, Jule Jo Ramirez, Hannah Wendell
Film co-director, camera, and editor: Eric Siegel
Set concept and design: Ioannis Oikonomou
Music: Daniel Wohl, Angelica Negron
Sound Design: Sean Hagerty
Piano for Daniel Wohl’s music played live by Vicky Chow
Collaborating Neuroscientist: Weiji Ma
Consulting Neuroscientists: Suzanne Dikker,Andre Fenton, Claudia Feld, Ed Lein, Gary Marcus, Wendy Suzuki
Theatrical Consultant: Edward Einhorn
Visual Assistant: Dana Florin-Weiss
Costumes: Marcia Patmos and Katrin Schnabl
Stage Manager: Katie Houff
SECRET SERVICE
In an attempt to maintain anonymity, they seek to hide and wander around busy public spaces where they can hide in anonymity, which consequently dissolves the meaning and the actual space of the hotel. The space breaks down into multiple units- rooms that are dispersed throughout the city, hidden behind the facets of “anonymous” groups or shells.
Io.Oikonomou, P.Tormprou
2004