New article in Ekistics and the New Habitat

In November 2011, the house of C.A. Doxiadis at Porto Rafti was demolished, part of the Apollonio community the architect built at the end of his life as a recreation of a traditional Cycladic island village. Perhaps the architect’s greatest work was destroyed.

I have written a brief description of the incident, as well as a description of my biographical project, that has been published in a special issue of Ekistics and the New Habitat. The issue is dedicated to the memory of Panayis Psomopoulos, a significant figure in the history of ekistics, “the science of human settlements” created by Doxiadis in the 1950s and 1960s. The new Ekistics journal is a successor to the original publication founded by Doxiadis.

You can find the article behind the paywall of the journal website. Below is the reference and DOI.

Blackman, H. (2022). The Demolition at Porto Rafti: Retracing Doxiadis’ Remarkable Life and Contested Legacy. [Special Issue] Ekistics-related research – A Critical Approach to the Ekistics Legacy. Ekistics and the New Habitat, 82(1), 91-94. https://doi.org/10.53910/26531313-E2022821464.

In the weeks to come I will also be writing about the Porto Rafti house in The World Planner, the Doxiadis-themed section of The Usonian newsletter.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

Read “The Usonian Interview, No. 17: Ioanna Theocharopoulou on ‘Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens'”

This week in The Usonian, I’m thrilled to share this interview with architect and architectural historian Ioanna Theocharopoulou about her revelatory book on the urban form of modern Athens, a work recently adapted as a documentary film. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to subscribe to The Usonian!

Read “A hundred years an architect” in The Usonian

Five years ago I had the extraordinary opportunity to interview Greek architect Athanasios Hadjopoulos, then 98 years old. Though frail, Hadjopoulos was razor-sharp, and he regaled me with tales of his international experiences with Le Corbusier, Oscar Niemeyer, C.A. Doxiadis, and Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the story of that encounter, which I am so pleased to share with you now [read it here].

The essay forms the second installment of my newsletter series The World Planner, about the life and times of global architect C.A. Doxiadis. Thanks for reading, and if this topic interests you, please consider subscribing!

“Region,” a new volume of architectural essays from Routledge, to be released in July

I’m thrilled to have an essay titled “Southwestern Fantasy: Pueblo Revival and architectural authenticity in New Mexico” in a new volume of architectural essays from Routledge.

Region, edited by Simon Richards, Cagri Sanliturk, Robert Schmidt III, and Falli Palaiologou, is the latest in a series from the Architectural Humanities Research Association. The book will be published in late July 2023; the articles in the volume center around questions of regionality in architecture and urban studies. Learn more about the book here.

I will be writing more about my contribution to the volume in The Usonian newsletter in the months to come. Cheers!

Read “Famagusta Collage, Part I: The city of the horned god” in The Usonian

This week’s post in The Usonian is the first of a five-part series, “Famagusta Collage,” on one of the most historically interesting cities in Cyprus across deep time. Read it here.

It’s also my first Substack read-aloud—you can listen to me read the post by clicking the play button at the top of the article. If readers respond to it, I’ll make it a more regular feature.

Thanks for reading!

Featured image: (Gerhard Haubold, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)