Dr. Papageorgiou: “Ms. Drossou, welcome to Talk am Hirschgraben. Let me introduce you to our audience: You are an architect and founder of dARCHstudio. I know very well that you just moved from Rhodes to Athens, and I am glad you could make it and that we can have our long-planned conversation today. Actually, we had planned to meet first in Berlin, then in Athens, then in Rhodes, and now it’s Athens after all. And not just anywhere in Athens, but in the district of Kypseli, the most densely populated district of Athens, where most of the multi-story buildings are located, but also most of the neoclassical listed ones. For me, a stark contrast between the ugly and the beautiful. Also all these countless narrow streets in between all these buildings. Αs a native of Cologne, I find the urban fabric very dense . My suggestion is Athens needs a liposuction, so first to reduce the building mass and then certainly a Botox, to cool down.„

(both laugh)

Ms. Drossou: “Thank you for your invitation. Yes, Athens, like many other cities, would do much better with liposuction and Botox. But all kidding aside. I would rather say there is an interesting coexistence between these two typologies through their contradiction. Although, multi-story buildings -polykatoikias- dominate the urban landscape of Attica, forming a great homogeneous image. It looks monotonous, to some extent rough and ugly, but from an architectural perspective it has a unique quality. Actually, this is made out of many small pieces of  apartment blocks. Don’t forget that Athens was never designed based on an overall master plan. Either with the neoclassical or later on with the apartment blocks, spontaneous interventions were made by the citizens without any general concept.„

Dr. Papageorgiou: “Ms. Drossou, you have lived in Berlin for the last few years. What is the difference between Athens and Berlin and what do you think are the similarities.„

Ms. Drossou: “The good thing about Berlin is that they do think and act “big”, meaning on a large scale! At least they think about big questions  about the city. Definitely, they act in a more organized and collaborative way and that also opens up new fields of experimentation, possibilities and qualities in the public space. Unfortunately, the spirit of collective thinking and interventions on an urban scale are still missing in Greece. But Athens has something magical about it, and what I really appreciated after coming back from Berlin is the relationship of these monotonous urban fabric of the apartment blocks with the natural topography, the hills of Athens. This forms a magical image, the way the hills and mountains stand out from the urban fabric and surprisingly interrupt it in many visual views. If it were not for the mountains and the relationship to the sea, we would have an unsustainable suffocating urban structure. On the other hand, everything in Berlin is flat, but the urban voids, the parks, the green spaces are very important and that’s how Berlin breathes.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “So, Berlin would be more flat breathing and Athens would be a snap breathing.”

Ms. Drossou: “You could say that. What I love in both cities is that they are both original and honest, rough and vibrant, loud and multicultural. Of course they have many problems, but they have managed over time to develop through the layers of their history diversity and difference. They both have a charming personality, I think.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “You are an architect and have been self-employed for almost twenty years. As a woman, and also as a mother, in a difficult city like Athens. This does not sound easy. Tell us how you became self-employed so quickly and how you still are. Greece, in this case Athens, is your location and as we all know Athens has not only an incredibly long and important history but also an incredibly long-lasting economic crisis. I would say Athens has never really recovered since 2012.”

Ms. Drossou: “Yes, indeed. When I finished my studies in Thessaloniki, I plunged right into practice, highly motivated and optimistic. It was then 2004, Athens was booming, we had the Olympic Games, Greece won the European Football Championship, economic growth was visible, everyone was smiling and was looking forward to the future with confidence. I was lucky enough to find my first job in one of the leading architectural offices in Athens, and what a dream coincidence, 10 meters away from my apartment in Kypseli at that time. The work was hard, very time-consuming. Regardless of the pressure of various parameters such as the client’s brief, deadline and cost, my employers accepted only the best solution. We worked on each project in as much detail as if it were an interdisciplinary research project. But at the end, the result was what really mattered, not the time spent. Good quality makes both happy, the client and the architect.  After just one year, I founded my own architectural firm, dARCHstudio, which I still run till today, with offices in Athens and Rhodes. The last years have been a little slower, as you mentioned, I now have two kids, so time becomes an even bigger factor. I had to become even more flexible in time.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “What do you think was the most important thing you learned from your employer?”

Ms. Drossou: “Probably, that I should approach each project in the context of its own needs, with sensitivity and honesty. The client must feel he is in good hands.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “There we have some parallels and a central difference between plastic aesthetic surgery and architecture. Of course, it’s all about the result, but for us is the process as well. For example, an abdominoplasty, consisting of the steps 360 liposuction, incision, elevation of the abdominal wall to the sternum, doubling of the rectus diastasis, wound closure with umbilical reimplantation must be performed in the shortest possible time. Not so that we can perform two more surgeries on the same day, but for the benefit of the patient’s well-being, because minimizing the surgery time (short operation time) minimizes the stress on the patient’s entire organism (low patient stress). It is a balancing act. You can’t dwell on trivialities; you have to operate quickly and in a goal-oriented manner. I think the most important thing is to know what is a side issue and what is not.”

Mrs. Drossou: “Fortunately, the brick does not suffer from the operation time in our case. It is stable and remains so afterwards. It is resistant to time, of course an operation must be done correctly and as quickly as possible, but in architecture it is different. It is important to me to develop a strong and distinct concept, specifically tailored to each project. This is only possible through research and analysis. And yes, I take this time, even under pressure from the client, who of course wants to have everything ready the sooner it gets. (laugh)

Furthermore, as you, as a doctor, may want to emphasize to the uniqueness of each person through their particular characteristics and needs, we also depend on the clients. The random brief of every client along with the particular design parameters come together to meet an idea, a feeling, and all together to form the identity of the design.

My first internationally renowned project “Papercut’ responded to the need for a fresh look of the Greek fashion designer Eleftheriades concept store. The budget was low. So, the idea of a simple design, using cheap and found materials had dramatically transformed the interior. For 15 days, the architects of the studio, volunteers and artists were relocated to the shop, where every construction was made on site. I won’t hide that I slept on the construction site one night. It was crazy work, but the result was worth it.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “We don’t hear much from you, but every 1-2 years you come up with something that gets published internationally. I remember how surprised I was when my practice in Rhodes (that you undertook) made it into the architecture press worldwide, for example we saw it in Dezeen Magazine. I think only 4 or 5 medical practices have been featured there to date.”

Ms. Drossou: “I told you it would be special. Well, considering the deadlines, I always try to give every project the time it needs to mature. We need precision in everything to be able to create a quality piece of work. And quality is something like aesthetics, it is timeless and never subject to a trend.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “Do you believe that quality and success go together?”

Ms. Drossou: “Yes and no. Quality is timeless. Success can also be

be a kind of shooting star. To be successful, you usually have to do quality work over many years. At least that’s how it used to be. With technological change and globalization, there are examples where the shooting stars shine longer than they used to.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “So, to achieve quality, time is an important factor, because for you every project- case starts from scratch.”

Ms. Drossou: “Yes, sure. My goal is always something unique and that is why I take my time to connect with the project and the context around it. Architecture is by nature chaotic, with all the arbitrary parameters we have to take into account when designing.  The same chaotic is the pace of our eveday life. So, I try to consciously focus on the process and the identity of the project and not on a certain pre-paved path or fixed aesthetic.

What I am attracted to despite the restrictive rules of the profession is to see reality with a freer view. That’s when every project can tell its own story.”

Dr. Papageorgiou: “I like your approach. Thank you.”