Talks

Dr. Platon Issaias
Royal College of Art, School of Architecture, London

“Ecologies of Existence – Architecture and Modes of Living”
Ecologies of living bring together material, environmental, technical, social and mental domains. To think ecologically is not so much a matter of protecting existing ecologies, but more importantly, a matter of generating conditions for different ones to emerge and affirm themselves. Only on these terms can a properly ecological project take place.

— Dr. Platon Issaias is an architect. He studied architecture in Thessaloniki, Greece and he holds an MSc from Columbia University and a PhD from TU Delft. His thesis investigated the recent history of planning in Athens and the link between conflict, urban management and architectural form. His research interests explore architecture in relation to the politics of labour, law and social reform. Prior to the RCA, he taught at the Berlage Institute/Rotterdam and since 2012 at the MArch Urban Design at the Bartlett. Platon lectures in Greece and internationally, and his research has been published in many occasions, among others in DOMUS, Quaderns and the catalogues of the Greek entries in the 13th and the 14th Venice Architectural Biennale. He is the co-author of the book The City as a Project, published in autumn 2013 by Ruby Press, Berlin, edited by Pier Vittorio Aureli. In the summer of 2014, he participated in the 14th Venice Architectural Biennale with the collective project Mechanism of Suspension, which was exhibited at the Greek Pavilion and the Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Prof. Dirk Sijmons
H+N+S Landscape Architects / North Sea Lab / Professor Emeritus Landscape Architecture, TUDelft

“2050 An Energetic Odyssey / Seascape Architecture”
2050 – An Energetic Odyssey is a research by design on the possibilities, opportunities, and spatial implications of the realisation of large-scale harvesting, transportation and storage of renewable energy sources on and around the North Sea. This project demonstrates the role the North Sea could play in meeting the globally agreed two-degree target. The project seeks to conceptualise a new development strategy where meaningful and productive connections between Ecology, Energy and Proteins (Ecologie, Eiwitten & Energie) are designed, thus maximazing broad societal gain in the long run.

— Prof. Dirk Sijmons, landscape architect, studied at Delft University of Technology. He worked at the Nature Conservation unit of the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social work from 1977 until 1981. From 1981 until 1984 he was head of the strategic policy development and research coordination unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. From 1984 until 1990 he was head of the Landscape Architecture Department of the Dutch Forestry Commission. From 1990 until 1993 he was coordinator of the Landscape Architecture study programme of the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. In 1990 he was one of the three founders of H+N+S Landscape Architects. In 2004 Dirk Sijmons was appointed Dutch Government Advisor on Landscape. He received the prestigious Edgar Doncker award in 2007 for his contribution to Dutch culture. From 2008 until 2015 Sijmons was professor of Environmental Design at Delft University of Technology. In 2014 he was the chief curator of IABR ‘Urban by Nature’. In 2017 he received the prestigious premier award for Landscape Architecture, the IFLA – Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award – the highest honourable carrier prize for contribution in the field of Landscape Architecture.