Tinos - Agios Sostis Bay

“Greece, one of the greatest inventions of mankind ..." Mikhail Epstein, Russian philosopher

Greece... a small ship that travels eternally
...with the purpose not only of birthing but also of spreading and transmitting great ideas round the world...

Information:

“The Archipelago as an alternative megalopolis” was the Greek proposal at the Biennale of Architecture in Venice - September 2006

Source: Free translation, Kathimerini, Technes kai Grammata, Sunday, August 27, 2006

The Aegean, a scattered aquatic city...

A floating, navigable conurbation, the ‘metropolis’ of the Mediterranean Sea, the multiple, alluring Aegean islands compose so many fascinating neighbourhoods, like decks of ships, or perpetually moving public squares.

A free confederation of islands under the flag of the Archipelago, the isle-bestrewn Aegean Sea comprises the alternative megalopolis, the open, navigable and kinetic environment of the future. From Ierapetra to Samothrace and from Limnos to Rhodes, beaten by waves and torn by winds, yet forever nourishingly embraced by a dazzling sun, the scores of Aegean islands appear for all the world like so many jewels stitched upon a maritime fabric. The Archipelago forms a vast and intricate web, a network of vibrant and variegated communities where tradition and modernity, anachronisms and innovations, pinewoods and shoals, forgotten outhouses and lovingly preserved architecture are all assimilated. All these contrasting elements coexist, competing with one another but also maintaining each other. The Aegean as a plexus, as a module, as a proposal for the urban life of ‘a city-outside-the-city’, as a place of freedom and opportunity, both hermitage and colourful pandemonium, this is the new meta-polis of the Mediterranean.

As a response to the growing ‘dehumanization’ brought about by exploding urbanization round the world, the Aegean emerges as the luminous city of a free tomorrow, a tomorrow that nobody had imagined could exist, even though it is already very much alive in the Greek archipelago.

In this Aegean megalopolis one can still discern the shadows of old-world Venetians, Saracens, Ottomans and Greeks of times past. Let us follow in their footsteps by traversing the sapphire waters of this magnificent sea, this network, highway, skyline of the Aegean city, to a myriad enchanting and beckoning destinations. A metropolis without a centre but instead with a multiplicity of beating hearts and throbbing hubs. A multi-centred metropolis comprised of constellations of smaller and larger urban and semi-urban cores which, though in the winter numbers around 1,300,000 residents, quadruples this in the summer months to reach a population of roughly 6 million...