Alkistis Thomidou &
Berta Gutiérrez Casaos
(forty-five degrees)
August — September 2021
→ Bucharest, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Danube Delta
Alkistis Thomidou lives and works in Berlin/Germany, trying to explore different scales of the built environment, both by research and design in western and non-western contexts, investigating alternative living models and new forms of development in the transforming European and global context. She studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and holds a master’s degree in urban design from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Berta Gutiérrez is an accomplished architect, researcher, and curator based in both Madrid and Berlin. Over the past eight years, Berta’s journey has involved design, art, pedagogy, and philosophy. Her multifaceted role as a curator, researcher, and project leader has left a mark on institutions including TBA21 Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary, the Ministry of Education of Argentina, CCCB, Medialab-Prado, Matadero Madrid, and the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Her recent achievements include jury participation in the Premis Barcelona for Design, Architecture, and Urbanism (2022), and serving as Assistant Curator under Daniela Zyman at TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (2022-2023).
In forty five degrees their work aims at investigating the built environment through research, design, and artistic experimentation, across multiple scales, analyzing its physical, social, and economic entanglements. We are interested in gathering protocols and collective approaches, exploring alternative living and city-making models and new paradigms of urban development by engaging with communities and local agents. We strive to create inclusive and accessible spaces through careful use of scale, material, and design language and are committed to rethinking education through academia and practice, placing design at the intersection of arts and sciences.
The residency is organised in the frame of Akademie Schloss Solitude's Eastern European Network exchange program.