New Productive Urban Furniture

AKTINA* constitutes a stand-alone power station that harvests solar energy and recharges electric bicycles and personal portable e-devices. It is part of a broader vision according to which, “Urban Sockets” would be distributed across the public space, comprising common, productive, local energy networks, for the accommodation of everyday needs. Fostering both the idea of distributed energy production through renewable resources and alternative mobility, the project suggests the development of a new productive urban furniture.

The first launch of a fully functional prototype took place in the context of Aeschylus Festival, in Elefsina, GR (2012). Since September 2013, AKTINA* lays in the centre of Athens; hosted at the garden of National Hellenic Research Foundation. Apart from its everyday ordinary function, AKTINA* intends to stimulate events and encounters, organized not only by the authors of the project, but mostly by visitors and passers-by. The installation enables its users to realize temporary, spontaneous, unexpected, ludic, ad hoc (inter)actions in public space, pointing towards notions such as self-sufficiency, sustainability and open accessibility within the contemporary urban landscape.

author

AKTINA* was realized through the collaboration of Energize and City Index Lab, two independent groups, which study together the potential dynamics of such an intervention, in public space.

City Index Lab was founded in Athens in 2006 by Elena Antonopoulou, Olga Linardou, Eftychia Papathanasiou, Foteini Setaki and Tina Tzoka. The group explores current issues on architecture and the production of space, investigating the transformations of design practices, due to the technological advances on design processes and fabrication techniques. It tries to rethink architecture, the city and its users, under the notions of sustainability and self-sufficiency, as well as, interaction and participation. City Index Lab has organized exhibitions, lectures and workshops, and authored a design-merit publication, while its work has been exhibited at the 6th Athens Biennale for young architects.

Energize was founded in 2010, by George Karatzas and George Monacholias, and since then it works on energy systems. Apart from the installation of the usual private energy production units, it investigates ways in which renewable energy resources would be distributed in the urban field, in order to establish open access and public usage for all.

collaborators

Eirini Vouliouri, Vasilis Ntovros, Mariza Papaevgeniou (Architects), Stelios Pletsis, Stefanos Tsimpourakis (Civil Engineers), Bruce Davis (Electrician)

website

cityindexlab.com, energize.gr 

country

Greece

year

2013