• Wednesday 5th October 2011
• 13.00-15.00
• Room  M140
• Marko Jobst         Writings and Beginnings
• Corine Delage     Text and Image
• Teresa Stoppani  Structure and Contents

Stefanos Gkougkoustamos Voices from Shatila. The making of a dissertation

Voices from Shatila: dissecting the urban apparatus of Beirut’s southern suburbs documents the place of residence of the Palestinian refugees of Beirut’s southern suburbs, identifying those political and participatory relations that make of them a city – a polis. It combines a historical account of the refugee camps of Beirut – based on archival research and site interviews – with a daring first-hand exploration of the sites, visited in 2008 in the company of a professional photo-reporter whose images provide a visual counterpoint to the text. The narrative intentionally refrains from the personal tone of the interview or the travel journal, and remains dry and matter-of-fact to focus on the spatial and architectural aspects of the Shatila camp, proving by contrast that architecture and urbanism are indeed inextricably linked to life, politics, violence, inhabitation and memory.

Stefanos Gkougkoustamos studied architecture at the University of Greenwich, where he received a BA Hons Architecture and a Diploma in Architecture. He practiced parachuting, philosophy and architecture in Athens and is now back in London, studying in the MSc in Adaptive Architecture and Computation programme at University College. Stefanos’s dissertation Voices from Shatila received a RIBA President’s Medals Dissertation Commendation in 2008.