BETWEEN AXIS AND LAYBRINTH

Athens is a city full of contradictions. Planned and chaotic at the same time. Monumental and improvised. Historically layered and constantly transforming. It is exactly between these opposites that the master thesis Brave New Axis by Spyridon Loukidis, Markos Georgios Sakellion and Georgios Thalassinos from the National Technical University of Athens unfolds. The three architects received the prestigious EUmies Young Talent Award 2025 for their work — one of the most important European awards for emerging architects, presented during the Venice Biennale. Their project begins with a nearly forgotten historical axis running through the center of Athens. But instead of understanding the city as a rigid geometric order, they reinterpret Athens as a network of relationships, fragments, atmospheres and public spaces. Their work moves somewhere between urban design, architectural theory, collage, political vision and spatial storytelling. The drawings recall Archigram, Superstudio and radical architectural visions — while simultaneously addressing very real issues such as public space, housing, urban voids and the future of European city centers. Today, we talk with them about Athens, urban fragments, new strategies for European cities and why architecture today may be less about objects and more about relationships.