Looking At Each Other — Constantinos Gallis

Constantinos Gallis
Cambridge, MA & Athens, GR

Hello, my name is Constantinos, & I am a Greek-Swiss artist, musician & student based in Cambridge, MA & Athens, GR. I am currently a dual degree student at MIT, pursuing a Master in City Planning & a Master of Architecture, & I hold a BA in Urban Studies from Stanford University, where I graduated with departmental honors & distinction. I am curious about the effects of urban change on the natural environment & society, I have explored my interests through academic research, teaching, large scale installations, performances, audio-visual investigations, & practical work experience at firms in Athens. GR, New York, NY & London, GB.

cgallis@mit.edu Instagram

I am one half of Oo-PS, a collaborative research & design practice working across scales to produce narrative-driven artwork, writing, music & objects as ways of anticipating sets of future socio-environmental challenges & designing theoretical methods to meet them.

Oo-PS

I write, record, produce & occasionally perform music under the alias Shrinking Violet, a project that modulates between ambient, dreampop & indie rock in an effort to create music about memory, distance & uncertainty.

Shrinking Violet

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Looking At Each OtherCambridge, MA
Archive & Research Center

Tasked to create an auditorium & archive for the School of Architecture & Planning, I considered the elements needed to create new knowledge, as well as the process of knowledge creation. As interaction between people or parties is fundamental to the making of new knowledge, the buildings I proposed became machines for generating interplay, oriented such that they could be looking at each other.

The archive arose from the earth while the research center descended from the sky perching subtly atop the surrounding buildings, to meet in a courtyard & form a theatre space from the void between the two masses. With an exterior roof space accessible from the ground level, the lower mass could project onto the flat surface of the mass hovering above it, not only activating the negative space between the buildings, but also placing the two halves in conversation with each other. The path of knowledge begins at the very top of the higher of the two masses, in the research center overlooking the rest of the institute & city. It is then brought down and communicated between the two masses, in a space accessible to the public, & at level with the rest of the institute, before it is finally deposited in the archive, a private space that sits below the school.