Research

  • Athens Projects
  • GRANTEE
    Point Supreme:
    Konstantinos Pantazis &
    Marianna Rentzou
    GRANT YEAR
    2016

Point Supreme, Kotzia Square, Athens, 2013. Courtesy of the artists.

Athens Projects is a series of proposals for the post-crisis city that aims to reveal reality's hidden potential. The series argues that utopia doesn't need to refer to idealized non-existing cities but instead can refer to illuminating our cities in new ways. In each proposal, the existing city is observed and recorded obsessively as it becomes a protagonist. Public space is turned back into a destination. The architecture is inclusive, ordinary, intentionally non-alluring—what matters is what happens around it. The city becomes a systematically exploited experimental field; the interrelated projects form a series, and vary from radical to immediately realizable. They stimulate broad public awareness of architecture through images that feed the collective subconscious and produce a new, public, and critical imagination.

Konstantinos Pantazis founded Point Supreme with Marianna Rentzou in 2007. He studied architecture in Athens and urbanism at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam. He has worked for offices such as Jun Aoki in Tokyo, as well as OMA and MVRDV in Rotterdam. Point Supreme publishes self-initiated projects for Athens, the city where they are based. Their work has appeared in Collage and Architecture, as well as Athens Projects, their first monograph, published as part of the Treatise Series (Graham Foundation, 2015). In 2012, Point Supreme was included by Greek newspaper LIFO as one of the “20 Most Influential Personalities” in the country. Point Supreme was nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov Prize (2014) and was included in Wallpaper magazine’s Architects Directory (2015). Pantazis has served as a visiting professor in Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Marianna Rentzou founded Point Supreme with Konstantinos Pantazis in 2007. She previously studied architecture and industrial design in Athens, at the Bartlett in London, and at the Design Academy Eindhoven. She has worked for Maxwan Architects and Urbanists, MVRDV, and OMA, and has participated in numerous workshops, exhibitions, publications, and international competitions.