19 April 2010 until 04 September 2010

The periodic exhibitions of the Byzantine & Christian Museum (BCM) host the opening of the exhibition and the presentation of the book by the architect Giorgos Triantafyllou.

Both the exhibition and the book are dedicated to the memory of the late Director of BCM Dimitris Constantios.

The exhibition comprises 180 photographs illustrating huts and sheepfolds found scattered throughout the Greek landscape. These structures, examples of an unexplored, neglected, but also true architecture, function as archetypes referring one back to prehistoric times. Related as they are, at the same time, with works of contemporary art and architecture, they record an underground route of sensitive artists seeking the truth in their work.

The exhibition is accompanied by 12 video projections suggesting ways in which the values of these archetypes, coupled with advances in modern technology, can contribute towards the aesthetic enhancement of the natural and the built environments. At the same time they highlight a strongly growing trend that has emerged in recent years around the world, opposing the huge scale housing complexes. A trend, perhaps a resistance, expressed by sensitive design and the increasing production of contemporary, small, poetic shelters, which seem to meet the needs of young people. Of those who can not, and probably want not, dream their lives housed in anonymous complexes or luxury villas, but wish to live in places of human scale, proximity to nature, built with ecological materials, incorporating all the advances of modern technology and utilizing green energy.

The exhibition is organized with the help of Hellenic Institute of Architecture and the support of the Technical Chamber of Greece. Curator of the exhibition is the architect, professor of Architecture in NTUA, and writer Dimitris Philippides.