NEIHEISER ARGYROS

The School of Athens – Benaki Museum

Rafael’s fresco “The School of Athens”1 is an ambition; a utopian vision of a free, open, informal, and common space for learning. It is an in-between space. Neither inside nor outside, not quite a room, but also not simply a space for circulation. It is not a classroom, and yet we see scholars and students debating, teaching, and studying.

Although we typically think of learning taking place in the classroom, educators and architects have recognized for thousands of years that learning also takes place in the space between; in the hallways, on the stairs, at the café, in the quad – the spaces we call the academic commons. Socrates taught in the Agora. Plato founded his Academy in the olive grove outside of Athens and often taught while walking. Medieval colleges were organized around a communal courtyard and 20th century universities are filled with generous circulation corridors that double as informal learning spaces.

The School of Athens exhibition showcases physical models of seventy different academic common spaces from across history and around the world, both realized and unrealized. All models are printed at the same scale – 1:200 – and show only the portion of the university that we have identified as the academic commons, excluding all of the other closed spaces like classrooms and offices. The physical models are complemented by data, drawings, and images of each school, that allow for further project comparison. An online database of all seventy digital models can be accessed for interrogation and play. By no means canonical or complete, this work is an ongoing and evolving research project – an ever expanding spatial atlas of the architecture of the academic commons.

There’s no absolute definition of the academic commons. It remains subjective and open for debate. However, its clear that the academic commons is paradoxically the space within the university that is either un-programmed, or that is uniquely capable of supporting a multitude of different programs. The academic commons is simultaneously the heart and the connective tissue of the university. To borrow Hannah Arendt’s term, the academic commons is the “space of appearance” within the university, the institutional equivalent of the public space in the city,or of the living room in the house. It is the space to see and be seen – an open and free space for exchange.

We believe that the architecture of academic institutions is in need of continual critique and update, and that the common spaces within the university are particularly vital to the university’s continued relevance and vibrancy. Researching, revealing, and evaluating the architecture of the academic commons that surround us is a critical first step towards being able to reinvent the academic commons of the future. There is therefore an urgent need to both look back, and to scan across the current landscape of university architecture, to extract and learn from spaces that are free – democratic, unprogrammed, and common.

– Neiheiser Argyros, February 2020

 

1 – Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-1511, Fresco, 500cm x 770cm. Apostolic Palace, Vatican City.

Curated by NEIHEISER ARGYROS, The School of Athens at the Benaki Museum continues and expands the research exhibited at the Greek National Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Program: Exhibition
Size:
600 sq.m
Year:
2020
Status:
Built
Location:
Athens, Greece

THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS

February 20 – May 17th, 2020

Benaki Museum Pireos Street, Athens, Greece
www.benaki.org

Curators:
NEIHEISER ARGYROS

Collaborators:
Panayotis Tournikiotis, Eleni Vagianou, Nikolas von Schwabe, Danae Haratsis, Vasiliki Zochiou, Bryce Suite, Giorgio Piscitelli, Eirini Sapka, Francesco Zuddas, Typical Organization for Standards & Order, Students from the Architectural Association, Students from the National Technical University of Athens

Exhibition Organization:
Benaki Museum
Neiheiser Argyros

Exhibition Coordination:
Natalia Boura

Sponsorship Coordination:
Maria Throuvala

Communication:
Nicoletta Menti

Press Office:
Athina Isaia

Lighting:
Bright Special Lighting

Graphic Design:
Typical Organization for Standards & Order

Constructions:
Stelios Labadarios
Emmanouil Lignos
Iordanidis Glassworks

Printed Matter:
Altagrafico

Digital Printings:
MaxPrint

Technical Support:
Yannis Tzervakis, Markos Ritsa

Security Supervision:
Dimitris Georgakopoulos

Student Collaborators:
Bolurin Adedipe, Andrea Agostini, Young Ahn, Nena Aru, Angeliki Asimakopoulou, Luciana Bondio, Beatrice Boselli, Edouard De Caussin, Niccolo Cesaris, Ryan Mujung Chiu, Aggelos Chouliaras, Anna Der, Ioannis Georgaklis, Gianna Gkioni, Theodora Giovanazzi, Alexandros Gravalos, Alexia Haluli, Grace Jeong, Xara Kaika, Penelopi Karalis, Lito Karamitsou, Georgia Kestekoglou, Kevin Larson, Nicholas Lin, Mariana Lombera, Charalampos Marangos, Grigoris Mathioudakis, Christina Melissourgou, Iris Nan Meng, Nikos Moustroufis, Atiyeh Naghavi, Katerina Papadopoulou, Olga Psarri, Heliciane Rallis, Tamara Rasoul, Indy Sankosik, Panagiotis Soteriades, Maria Nefeli Stamatari, Evangelos Stampelos, Elaine Skoufi, Marianna Tsapepa, Aggeliki Tsilidi, Qiuyu Xiong, Aijie Xiong, Tommy Hexuan Yu, Chris Zhongtian Yuan, Stavros Zotos

Lead Sponsor: Onassis Culture

Sponsors: Bright Special Lighting, Lamda Developments, ETEM, Hellas3d, Archeothiki

Air Carrier Sponsor: Aegean Airlines

Opening Ceremony Sponsor: Domaine Evharis

With the co-financing of Greece and the European Union.

Back