Born in Famagusta, Cyprus in 1933, Panos Koulermos studied architecture and urban planning in London and Milan and worked as an architect in London, Milan, Athens, and Los Angeles. He taught at the School of Architecture of the Architectural Association in London, at the University of Southern California, and in other institutions in the U.S. and Europe. His work has gained international fame through major architectural exhibitions, academic foundations, and periodicals. Koulermos’ work, which combines theoretical research with architectural practice, places him at the forefront of the contemporary debate on architecture. Critical of the trends of ‘Post-Modernism’ and ‘Reconstruction’, Koulermos aims to be, in his own words, an “evolutionary modernist” whose work seeks “to transform the spirit and the meaning of modernism”.
PANOS KOULERMOS, Place, Memory + Form, is the first exhibition that DESTE organizes dedicated to architecture. With the concepts of place, memory, and form at the heart of Koulermos’ works, in recent years they have acquired a personal tone which escapes the nostalgic emotional charge typical of a large section of contemporary architecture. As the architect explains, “the architectural elements I use are fundamentally mnemonic, that is they evoke a memory of formal associations…these buildings are all basically symbols that evoke the memory of different historical typologies. The connection with history is made through memory, not through stylistic repetition. Here, the person experiences the space, then is reminded of some memory of form.”
Organized by the DESTE Foundation and the architectural review Tefchos in collaboration with the Cultural Office of the Cypriot Embassy, the show presents a comprehensive retrospective of the architect’s work through models, blueprints, plans, cross-sections, and photographs. In the frame of the show, a public lecture on Koulermos’ work will be presented by the architect himself at the House of Cyprus, Athens.
