Whenever architecture is not practiced in flashy ways and with a pompous aesthetic, its salutary qualities become more visible both individually and socially.
Vassiliki Kostoglou
Architecture is a science, not an art
Text: Giorgos Geronikolaou
For Vassiliki Kostoglou, architecture is a professional activity offering multiple benefits to the greater good, involving a high level of observation, analysis, decomposition and recomposition. “Through the questioning of structures, habits, and even hard cold data, architects are called to place the user under the limelight instead of themselves, creating a composition that will respond to the contextual needs. Architecture is a science and not an art, as many people working in technical fields tend to call it, confounding art with the notion of sublime. Whenever architecture is not practiced in flashy ways and with a pompous aesthetic, having as ultimate aim some phancy photo shoot, its salutary qualities become more visible both individually and socially, as the capstone of a healthy group of individuals who respect their habits and way of life,” she mentions.
“As one can easily notice, though, architecture is practiced nowadays by other professional branches too, such as political engineers, decorators or self-taught technicians, thus clipping the prospects of further evolution. People are inclined to see it as a luxury to consult with an architect for their housing needs, as it involves a more detailed and thorough approach, at least compared to the basic principles of housing that do not include a qualitative analysis of the personality and the features of each user, as well as of the building itself. Living in the century of customization in all fields, the distinction between one’s residence and housing should have been made crystal clear by now, and the latter should have already earned its place as a key prerequisite to a better life,” she adds.
Vassiliki’s interest in engineering dates back from a really young age thanks to her land surveyor father, Kosmas Kostoglou, a multifarious spirit with a flair for solving complicated problems. Mathematics, taking part in the exams of the Hellenic Mathematical Society, as well her early contact with algebra and trigonometry, gave her right from the start the confidence that through algorithms and proper planning everything could be resolved, as long as a method and critical skill are put into motion. The love for craftsmanship and art, inherited by her mother Aristea Younaki, triggered a romantic mentality that was initially expressed through the guitar and music up until her teenage years. Later on, this romantic touch was matched by her technical aptitude, giving birth to a profound interest in architecture.
Architecture is a science and not an art, as many people working in technical fields tend to call it, confounding art with the notion of sublime. Whenever architecture is not practiced in flashy ways and with a pompous aesthetic, having as ultimate aim some phancy photo shoot, its salutary qualities become more visible both individually and socially, as the capstone of a healthy group of individuals who respect their habits and way of life.
Her architectural studies in DUTh, alongside distinguished professors such as Tassos Biris and and later on Prodromos Nikiforidis, proved to her that studying a subject matter you love first urges you to question it and then to reevaluate it. Her school was structured in a way to promote the immediate depiction of desires, thoughts and feelings into expressionist drawings and outlines, which served both as a medium and message regarding what the architect had in mind. However, her need to renegotiate the established boundaries of her field led her to enroll to post-graduate studies in Design, at the Polytechnic University of Milan, with a full scholarship. If Greece taught her the philosophy of architecture, then Italy introduced her to the art of detail and the obsession with technique, through which aesthetic is produced and industrialized. Halfway into her master’s degree, she received a research proposal from professor Marco Maiocchi and began her PhD titled “Psychology and Design”. At the same time, she was recruited by the famous Studio Scacchetti as Head of the Concept Department.
Following her studies in Italy, she returns to Greece, settles in Thessaloniki, and launches Kostoglou Architettura in 2015, a boutique studio that undertakes customized architectural works and projects. The process she adopts in every project takes into consideration the psychological aspects, the needs and the aesthetic of the users, and is composed of the below stages: filling in a questionnaire, outlining the user’s profile, analysis of the user’s needs, composition. Her works have been bestowed with prestigious honorary distinctions (Residential Awards 2020 | Platinum for the residence in Panorama, Thessaloniki, Best Luxury Award for the historic detached house in Drama, Big See Award for the dental clinic Roots in Athens, Greek Design=Good Design granted by the Hellenic Industrial Property Organisation for innovative luminaire design, among others). In addition, she occasionally contributes to Greek and Italian magazines, draws, designs furniture, luminaires and carpets, hosts workshops, exhibitions and symposiums, while also being a guest speaker in architecture-related colloquiums and events.
Her greatest complaint is that “everyone qualifies architecture as an easy and pleasant profession, and label us as ‘artists’ in a diminutive way, naively believing that Pinterest could substitute for everything an architect has worked hard to master and grasp, through years of studies, trials and errors. Moreover, the pressure for speedy completion of the projects takes a toll on our profession, deterring architects from forging a core idea in their every work. Users are unfortunately influenced by the overflow of uncorrelated and scrappy images while surfing online, constantly shifting views on the lifestyle and the identity that best suits them, succumbing to plain consumerism, displaying insecurity and inability to define the aesthetic and the way of living that expresses them the most. As a result, architecture becomes more and more mass-oriented, rushed and sloppy. The most ‘glamorous’ architectural works nowadays, at least to the eyes of an experienced architect, are disorderly constructed, lacking a holistic approach and are cut off from the user, homogenized and hardly exciting,” she explains.
Kostoglou Architettura studio is based in Thessaloniki, at Avenue G. Alexander 7, whereas branch offices are to be found in Athens, Milan, and soon enough in her beloved island of Syros.
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