Konstantinos Gounaridis, a licensed Greek architect, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National Technical University of Athens, and Europe 40under40 award winner, co-founded MoC Architecture Collaborative in 2018. With experience at studios like Kengo Kuma & Associates and Antonio Maria Tedeschi on projects such as Parma 2030, he participated in the 2016 Venice Biennale’s Greek Pavilion “Strongholds of Memory.” His research-driven practice explores memory as a design parameter, crafting award-winning works—from installations to urban interventions—that bridge theory, culture, and spatial dialectics through thoughtful, context-responsive narratives.
GDN: What are the principles guiding your architectural projects?
Konstantinos Gounaridis: In our practice, at MoC Architecture Collaborative, we seek to engage critical context to our projects. Architectural dialectic, spatial paradoxes, theoretical and cultural issues are driving our investigation for emerged principles each time we practice. We do not dogmatize our procedures, of course there are design principles that intuitively are used to execute any design practice, but it is part of our process to re-investigate the principles as a theoretical critique or a dialectic understanding of the project. However, in our research we challenge memory as a field of a holistic response to spatial demands. We are interested in memory as a spatial parameter, which could potentially be incorporated into the design process. Memory is conceived as a tool, with potential material interpretation, to understand time, avoiding nostalgic and/or romantic references.
GDN: How do you balance environmental consciousness with client needs in your submitted work?
Besides the typical canonical answers already proposed from legislative frameworks, we are trying to raise the question to its architectural level. Architecture has the obligation to be re-invented every time it is practiced. Referring to a Michele De Lucchi’s phrase being interviewed in a recent podcast (Parola Progetto), there is no unique sustainability, there are sustainabilities that have to be invented each time you raise the question. At the same time, in research-driven environments we are intrigued by the possibility that questioning the status quo, and accessing in a multidisciplinary approach, space could be expanded, and architecture could be redeveloped.
GDN: How has receiving the Europe 40under40 award influenced your approach to future projects?
Receiving the Europe 40under40 award acts as a moment of critical reflection. It validates our practice as a relevant mode of inquiry within the broader European context. This recognition emboldens us to push the dialectic understanding of our projects further, trusting that a rigorous, theoretical critique can coexist with the built reality. The impact of the award could be substantial, enhancing possible future collaborations in the European context. As a collaborative we continuously invest in collaborations as means to architectural production.
GDN: What legacy do you hope your generation of architects leaves behind?
Our generation is practicing in a very different reality. Contemporary means are facilitating the production of an immense number of projects, alternating the contemporary field of practice. Climate change, resiliency, and social inclusion are profoundly sensitive subjects that our generation must address. Cities as cultural infrastructures are obtaining the responsibility to respond, and architecture to fundamentally reformulate the realities of our environment. Time, and space are the active ontologies constituting existence. The remembrance of our time, hopefully will narrate that architecture’s critical framework synthesized multidisciplinary demands, responding to contemporary emergencies.
