XENIA BΟΞ
Project by Joshua George
RIBA Silver Medal Nomination
Urban Cuts Across Media
Set in the turbulent district of Exarchia, a multifaceted tug of war for purpose and place catalysis tensions. Of which were used to inform a process that cracked material forming a literal cut. The crack was 3d scanned and re-projected over Athens as a form of urban investigation to witness the tensions first-hand in a dérive-like study.
The Xenia Bοξ looks to restore the ancient Greek practice of Xenia, an ancient philosophy of hospitality, that has been lost to time and misfortune. Bοξ, reinstating the name of an anarchist cinema, meaning ‘voice’ or ‘to speak’ which became the interface of the project.
The building provides a platform for the suppressed, silenced and bullied. Through a network of vacant buildings, the Xenia Bοξ restores functions and character lost to gentrification by a developed process called folding for function. The project then utilises the libertarian ethos and desire for diverse self-organised ways of building. This took the form of various levels of temporality and intervention which is deeply rooted in the anarchistic nature of Exarchia. The building reaches down into Exarchia as an extension of Strefi Hill as the Bοξ intervenes in the public realm.
