Elias Vavaroutsos

OWPP Architects, Chicago, Illinois

Title: real|building

Monday, August 29th, 6:00 PM

Clyde Lee and Jane Celia Baker Traveling Fellowship Report - Spain 2004

The Iberian Peninsula offers a wide range of topographies in which to build. From the flat plateaus, to the rugged hills, to the Pyrenees in the North, and the cultural inflections that accompany the cities in these regions, the land is a place of immense diversity. Yet there exists a remarkable level of quality and consistency in the architecture inherent to these variable conditions. The work is characteristically determined by a sense of lucidity, calm and measure; a restrained poetic rationalism attuned to its context and topography. The past is not forgotten or relegated to nostalgic heritage; it serves as a sort of genetic memory to invigorate, reinterpret and empower the future. There remains a sensibility in the economy of use, of precision and exactitude, and of the well-organized parti. Not merely self-centered or invented, the work initiates a concentrated gathering of the cultural, the universal and the power of the landscape. It is architecture of essence.

In Spain , architects know how to build, and how to build well. Sensuous materials and elegant details reveal a celebration of construction, of the real. The work draws on a profound knowledge of craft; everything is executed with the sense that something concrete is to be built. Among the vastly deep pool of architectural talent, the work of a limited few most consistently embraces these ideals and those described above: Mansilla +Tunon, Carlos Ferrater, RCR, and their benefactors; Sert, Coderch and Baldeweg. This group values several common themes while maintaining a stylistic plurality. All employ restraint in terms of form, delighting in understatement, in utilizing the minimum means for maximum expression. They seek to raise the consciousness of the existence of certain essential dimensions and elements such as mass, gravity, presence, absence, and silence. Their primary moves derive from practical considerations of circulation, the control of sunlight, and the flow of space. They explore vibrant materials responsive to light and with the capacity to simulate the sky. Finally, construction and use are transformed by a fundamental abstraction that achieves tension from the pressure of underlying images and ideas; something of intuitive value is communicated before it is understood. The work presented will share these common issues and a spirit in which the pragmatic is understood as the path to the poetic act of building.

BIO

Elias Vavaroutsos is a senior designer with OWP/P Architects in Chicago , where he has lead the design for numerous education, institutional, commercial, aviation and healthcare projects. He joined OWP/P in 1999 after 5 years as an architect with Perkins & Will.

Mr. Vavaroutsos graduated with Highest Honors from the University of Illinois in 1994 with a Master's of Architecture Degree. His design thesis ("Where Caliban Meets Ariel ") for a birthing clinic near the Chicago River explored the possibilities of a latent, emotional architecture embodying a reciprocity of aerial and terrestrial space. He was also the recipient of the Jenny B. Long and Creative and Performing Arts Fellowships.

His recent work includes the International Competition "MP 2004: A Lodge for Machu Pichu" ( Finalist ), Guadalajara 's Jalisco Public Library Competition, and Tarkington Elementary, the first Chicago school to receive LEED certification (opening Fall 2005). He is currently leading the design for Milwaukee 's new Froedtert Cancer Pavilion, a 350,000 square foot building integrating Plinth (parking structure) and Pavilion (cancer center) with its landscape and context. His recent educational work will be featured in the upcoming I-Space Gallery Exhibition owpp/urban schools (March, 2006).

Mr. Vavaroutsos has 12 years of experience as an architect and educator, and has been a Visiting Studio Critic at the University of Illinois . He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Chicago Architectural Foundation.