Ioanna Theocharopoulou

Ioanna Theocharopoulou

Visiting Lecturer
Past Faculty
Department

Architecture

Ioanna Theocharopoulou is an architect and architectural historian whose research focuses on cities and on the histories, theories, and evolving concepts of post-carbon architecture and society. Her writing has appeared in numerous books and journals, and she has collaborated on curating and chairing several academic conferences, including "Ecogram: The Question of Sustainability at Columbia University" (2008–11), and "Cities and Citizenship" (2014) with the Goethe-Institut and New York University. She is the author of Builders, Housewives, and the Construction of Modern Athens (London: Artifice, 2017 and Athens: the Onassis Foundation, 2018 and 2022). Her book inspired the creation of an eponymous documentary released in 2021, directed by Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis. Theocharopoulou has taught at the Cooper-Hewitt Master's Program for Design and Curatorial Studies, at Columbia University Graduate School for Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and at Parsons School of Design, the New School in New York City. She has participated in multiple academic conferences, most recently in the Athens Urban Age Forum organized by the London School of Economics Cities Program and the City of Athens (June 2022). Theocharopoulou studied at the Architectural Association in London (AA Diploma) and holds a Master’s in Advanced Architectural Design (MSAAD) and a Ph.D. in Architectural History from Columbia University.

Academic Research/Specialty Areas

Adaptive reuse
Architectural design
Architectural practice
Architectural technology
Architectural theory
Community-based planning and development
Drawing
Economic development
Gender- and age-based planning
Historic preservation planning
Housing
Infrastructure planning
Land use/spatial planning
Landscape architecture
NGOs
Participatory and collaborative planning
Performance art
Photography
Public art
Social policy
Structures in architecture
Sustainability
Transportation planning
Urbanism
Visual representation

Architectural histories and theories
Urbanism
Sustainable design
Post-carbon cities and societies

Related News

Classes (Selected)

ARCH 3819/5819/4408/6408 Cities and Climate Change

Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

The Onassis Foundation and Cultural Center, Athens, Greece, in support of a new edition of Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens, and its translation into Greek (forthcoming in 2020)
The New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) in support of the publication and promotion of Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens, Storefront Gallery for Art and Architecture, New York City, fiscal sponsor (2017)
The Foundation of Architectural History, in support of the publication of Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens (2017)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

Speaker at "Re-Think Athens: Urban Challenges" conference at the Onassis Cultural Center, Athens, 2015
Cocurator of "Inside (hi) Stories," a series of talks about aspects of the modern interior, initiated in collaboration with Sarah Lichtman, director, Cooper-Hewitt Master's Program in Design and Curatorial Studies, 2011–2018
Speaker, "Debating Design and Innovation in Times of Crisis" conference, Harvard GSD, 2012

Publications (Selected)

Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens (Artifice/ Black Dog Publishers, 2017)
"Oikiosis: A Guide to Adaptive Behavior," in XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design, Mitchell Joachim and Michael Silver, eds. (Actar Publishers, 2017)
"The Athenian Polykatoikia: A Social and Cultural Reading 1949–74," in Middle-Class Housing in Perspective, Gaia Caramelino and Federico Zanfi, eds. (Peter Lang Academic Publishers, 2014)
"Design, Sustainability, and the Global City", cowritten with Christian Hubert, in Urban Design Ecologies Reader, Brian McGrath, ed. (John Wiley & Sons, 2013)