Adonis Kleanthous and Yiorgos Hadjichristou

THE URBAN GLENTI (FEAST)_ THE LYMPIA EDITION

How did your collaboration with this year’s Xarkis Festival come about? What is the purpose of your participation in the festival’s activities?

From our point of view, the Xarkis Festival contributes immensely to the creation of culture in our country. Our very remarkable student Christos Savva, a partner of the festival and enthusiastic about the festival’s activities, was the initiator of this collaboration.

Who is the intended audience of your workshop?

The workshop and the installation are definitely addressed to the general public in order to raise awareness about social and ecological values in the environment we live in. “Urban Glenti_ Lympia edition”, aims to rethink a way of life where a fresh, festival-like urban energy is integrated into a rural environment and infuses the Lympia settlement by claiming spaces as public. The workshop will draw on inspirations from traditional expressions of the concept of celebration, such as weddings and the outdoor fun of “Green Monday”. It will aim at synergies of urban energy, entertainment and references to the natural and outdoor built environment.

The theme of this year’s Xarkis Festival is “Back to the roots: environment and society”. In what way and to what extent does this thesis fit into the curriculum guide of the Department of Architecture of the University of Nicosia?

The Department of Architecture explicitly expresses the importance of ecology and environmental sensitivity in the education and practice of Architecture. At the same time, it emphasizes the convergence of contemporary narratives in the field of the built environment with local, cultural, environmental and social conditions, to create unique and distinctive identities. Returning to archetypes and roots with a critical eye – which is the lens of our educational explorations – is another way of producing innovation in the built environment of living.