A Case of Participatory Design

Konstantinos-Alketas Oungrinis studied architecture in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from where he also received his PhD. He is the Director of the Transformable and Intelligent Environments Laboratory (TIE Lab), School of Architecture, TUC. His work on dynamic, human-centered architecture involves research on kinetic structures, smart materials and responsive control systems for the creation of intelligent environments that can respond actively with 'sense' to the needs and wishes of people. His research specializes in transformable environments, activity-based design methods, time-space relationships, user-experience design, educational environments and spaces within extreme environmental conditions. He has developed two specific approaches for the successful implementations of IT in design titled Spatial Economy and Sensponsive Architecture. His work has been presented and published extensively through international conferences and also through design and fabrication workshops. His thematic areas of study are interdisciplinary, rooted in the field of architecture and from there on branching out mainly into the domains of psychology, neuroscience, electrical engineering and computer science. He is the author of two books: 1)Transformations: Paradigms for Designing Transformable Spaces (2006) Harvard GSD Design and Technologies Report Series, Cambridge, MA and 2) Transformable Architecture: Movement, Adaptation, Flexibility (2011) ION Publishers, Athens. He also writes sci-fi novels.