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Sustainability education based on value propositions 

The Compocity team has developed a gamified app that engages different age groups in various circumstances to implement the learning-by-doing method into their sustainable habits. While they do the composting, they earn points, and they can join various community missions. But this is just the beginning. It's not a simple-minded, reward-based app with some knowledge sharing thrown in. It forms communities and lets people see how relevant their contribution is toward a self sufficient environment. The UN claims that by 2050 70% of the world's population will live in cities. In this workshop, we invite you to develop further the gamified elements of the system. You can make it scalable by coloring it with your cultural background, your national heritage, and (last but not least) with your own personality. Gamification lets us promote permaculture in towns and cities, which includes a self sustaining approach, a philosophy of land management, and how we treat our environment. We can design unique maps that highlight local specialties, for instance the Pistachio of Aegina. We will challenge ourselves to figure out how vertical farming can rewrite our knowledge of planting; moreover, we will see if we can do this in indoor conditions. We will experiment with the many ways we can combine the permaculture approach with technology to make a system that offers solutions to climate change. Thanks to the app, we have a tool that reaches everyone and shares knowledge and makes it all a lot of fun. 

The goal of the workshop is to share our design results as common knowledge and to develop them further in future collaborations with local and international designers. For this purpose, ECOWEEK is the best place to connect with experts, to team up, and to make ideas happen.

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*online event

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The workshop is aiming to designing a series of interventions (urban acupuncture) through participatory processes in order to rethink public space in Aegina as an inclusive playground. The focus of the design is to create conditions for a plural use of public space.
The title [RE_] is a reference to various verbs that will influence our design process: rethink, reuse, renew, reinvent, but also remember, respect, relate, reflect.
We will design interventions that will encourage children, locals and tourists of all ages to spend time in public space, meet and discuss or even play together. Participants are welcomed to work in smaller groups and expected to create assemblages of different proposals through cooperation.

We strongly believe in participation. The workshop will focus on incorporating public input onto the design process, in order to produce more relevant, sustainable and resilient proposals that reflect the common vision for the town’s future. For the workshop to take place, consultation with locals will be needed. A public event will be organized so that it will give an opportunity to the community to engage in an open discourse about public space. Our purpose is to activate the community through a participatory workshop and have sufficient multi-generational input.

In addition to the participatory approach we will collaborate with the team of the ‘Gamified sustainability for future cities’ workshop that will be taking place at the same time and receive their implemented ideas to consider them as possible strategies for the proposals. The output of the workshop will consist of a constellation of different proposals for a more sustainable and playful future for the town of Aegina.

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*online event

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Unraveling a place’s hidden history to co-design a sustainable destination

Placemaking is an approach that has in its core the dialectics among space and human, and how those two “create” place. We can approach “place” from various perspectives. “Place” can be public, common, open or private. We can view it through its physical dimensions and characteristics (hardware), its social, economic, cultural, experiential and identity aspects (software), or even through the processes, the policies and politics, and the development and management frameworks of a place (orgware).

How about the meanings, the histories and identities that a place carries? How does the local community identify themselves with those and how do they bring them to their everyday lives? How does the identity of a place, such as the island of Aegina, that carries also functions of commercialization and tourism relate to these meanings? Could we potentially imagine and design a bottom-up, participatory and sustainable touristic place branding that has in its core the place identity of the local community? And if yes, how is this place branding projected and depicted into the design of a place? These are the queries that we will attempt to reflect upon and develop concepts and designs during our workshop.

Connecting heritage to place is very important to foster the sense of ownership among the community. The workshop will help us to identify the key elements that define the identity of a place, and how it can be brought to the present, while designing “tools” for developing a sustainable touristic destination. The workshop weaves together approaches, methodologies and tools from placemaking, participatory planning and community building and will intimately link the specific context of the island of Aegina to the cultural heritage of a place- both tangible and intangible. In a user-centred approach, it will allow us to develop a project that genuinely fits this particular place and its users, focusing both on strategic - place-branding - level and the physical design. 

Get ready for a travel in time that will offer the insights and material to co-create the future of an Aeginian place!

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*online event

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Bioclimatic Design study of a small scale prototype thermal bath facility aimed for medical and spa tourism, in an effort to revive the thermal springs of Souvala in Aegina.

The island of Aegina is of volcanic origin. The thermal baths were well known for their healing properties since the antiquity.  The area of Souvala used to be a spa resort until the fifties with a hotel in the area. The thermal springs have been abandoned for many decades now. 

The aim of this workshop is to highlight in a holistic way the wellness aspect of hot springs. The purpose is to attract people from all ages with the possibility to extend the touristic period in the winter. Emphasis will be given in ecological, environmental and historical issues as well as in health aspects offered through architecture. 

Participants will be guided how to propose a small thermal therapy and wellness center on a given site in the neighborhood of the thermal springs, following all principles of sustainability and bioclimatic design. We will explore how to revitalize spa wellness tourism incorporating nature into architecture.

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Collaborator: Michail Floros, Dipl. Arch/ MArch, Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, UK, visiting Lecturer at University of Hertfordshire, involved in environmentally and socially impactful projects.

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Energy Consultant: Thanasis Manoloudis, Mechanical Engineer MSc, Energy Efficiency expert.

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Consultant: Dr. Elias Messinas, Architect / ECOWEEK

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*online event

Coming out of the pandemic crisis, the concept of sustainability is ranked as one of the most important trends, both in the selection criteria of the global visitor and the entrepreneurs of a destination. In this context, the Destination must adjust its strategy and aim for a more sustainable future. One of the first steps to achieve the above is the DESTINATION ASSESSMENT. The evaluation process allows a destination to be directly involved in the application of the criteria for the destination, to understand its sustainability against global top standards and to identify areas for improvement based on them. In addition, the correct
evaluation is based on impartiality and objectivity. It intends to be used as a tool for the management authorities of the destination to identify the strengths and weaknesses, as their effects concern the management of the Sustainability of the Destination and its value chain (supply chain). It is NOT a quality mark or certification, it is a real "assessment" of the situation at a time.
The Sustainable Destination Assessment laboratory is a pre-assessment of a DESTINATION EVALUATION, with the aim of demonstrating the capabilities of this tool at the level of a destination like Aegina, and the participatory training of students in assessment processes with real data and representations, both with the local community and with the stock of a destination like Aegina. The design of the workshop will use the methodology of the World Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC / www.gstcouncil.org), while the evaluation will be based on the GSTC Methodology for Sustainable Destinations, GSTC-D.
The main objective of the methodology that will be applied is the introduction of the basic principles of sustainability for the destination by Dr. I. Pappas, and the definition of data retrieval objectives for the evaluation of the criteria of the standard and therefore of the Destination with real data that will emerge from bibliographic search, field research and interviews with the local community. In other words, it is a simulation of a real assessment for the level of sustainability of a destination!
For the needs of the implementation of the above, there will be the active participation of 20 students, of which 5 will act locally at the destination and the rest via the internet, supporting the on-site research and processing of the material. At the same time, there will be a continuous interaction of the evaluation team with the local community (hoteliers, restaurants, city councilors, by associations / NGOs), through a series of meetings (one for each module of the model - Destination Management | Economy & Society | Culture |Environment) and updating the objectives of each action and evaluating the results / findings of the previous action, at different points each time of the destination. In this way, everyone will interact and participate in the result, as well as contribute as a multiplier of the people of the destination for an important and useful result for its future.
The Laboratory concludes with an evaluation meeting of all the findings, through the participation of the groups for each unit, the creation of a set of conclusions which are presented to the local community, with which a discussion is held on them and a first set of proposals and actions is planned for the next destination day towards a more sustainable and creative future.
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*registration required
*hybrid event
*event in greek