By Xristina Argyros and Ryan Neiheiser

Catalogue for the Venice Biennale Architettura 2018 National Pavilion of Greece.

“The School of Athens” Catalogue collects into a single atlas-like book the research, essays, symposium events, and design of the exhibition space. Specifically, the exhibition showcased physical models of fifty-six different academic common spaces from across history and around the world, both realized and unrealized. We believe that the architecture of academic institutions is in need of continual critique and update, and that the common spaces within the university are particularly vital to the university’s continued relevance and vibrancy. Researching, revealing, and evaluating the architecture of the academic commons that surround us is a critical first step towards being able to reinvent the academic commons of the future. There is therefore an urgent need to both look back, and to scan across the current landscape of university architecture, to extract interesting and successful spaces that are “free” - democratic, unprogrammed, and common.