Erotic Environments 



Is there such a thing as an erotic space?
Can a spatial gesture influence or support erotic action?
Why do erotic environments occur impromptu without being designed ?


Erotic Environments is an investigation on how eroticism and space intersect and meet one another.The erotic experience is based equally on all senses. A malleable impermanent structure, an inflatable installation moves and turns between the columns, creating a sensual route. The design re-appropriates an abandoned concrete structure that was initially designed to be a hospital and has been left as an empty and incomplete frame. Architectural ndesign is used as a storytelling device, setting up a sequence of sensory experiences. The aim of this playful and highly performative bodily experience is loss of control, misperception of reality, sensual awakening and playful release in order to be set vulnerable in this new erotic space.




Part 1_The eroticism of the senses


The erotic experience is based on the senses. Within th eroticism we rediscover the senses we have the tendency
to forget in our optical world. The eroticism of the senses is hosted in an abandoned building inside the Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, an abandoned hospital that was never finished and remains a huge concrete ghost building till today.
The idea of the eroticism of the senses transforms into a soft inflatable installation, that could be moved anywhere in the world, a soft and sensual space that moves ad turns between the concrete columns of the cold existing building, creating a sensual route inside it. The visitor will discover a bodily experience inside space, lose control and perception of the reality, awaken his senses, and free from all the stereotypes and social misconceptions, he will be set vulnerable in this new erotic space.

Through strongly opposed experiences and an unexpected route in an uncommon environment, he will be set freefrom his misconceptions and discover a new perception.Walking through a range of spaces that aim to energize his senses, he will discover the new erotic. At the same time h will be experiencing the city and his surroundings through the prism of the inflatable red installation.
The magic of abandonment and the sense of despotism and cruel nature of the building, convert it into a startlingscene where a sensual experience can take place. By placing, a red inflatavle installation in such a building, a new experience is created for the visitor, while the ghost buildingtransforms from a haunted skeleton in an interesting element of the city.





Part2_The eroticism of the mask and the veil as a game of hide and seek





The eroticism of the mask and the veil was placed at the former erotic hotel Ariston. In the grounds of an old sex hotel takes place a vertical route, that aims to the gradual release to the pleasures of eroticism. Among veils and shadows, behind the mirrors, the visitor undresses from social constraints and becomes someone else as if wearing a mask to rediscover himself inside a new experience. The erotic experience at the Hotel Ariston will be set up within the open floor plans, within a route of thematic elevation, with the help of the ladder, through which a variety of spaces will lead to sexual freedom. Through a series of transitional spaces, which allow
the elimination of stress, loss of control, play, etc., visitors are prepared mentally and physically to experience the erotic acts, which takes place on the top floors of the hotel. The visitor experiences a rise in order to find release, through the different spaces on his way.





Part3_The eroticism of nature





The eroticism of the nature or the garden of hedonism was an extensive conceptual research. The worship of nature (as a deity), has always been associated with Dionysian ceremonies that lead to sexual orgies. Our very nature (as animals) is the one that leads us to reproduction. Eroticism is a result of the need to reproduce, while in turn the nature is characterized by a love magic, balance and serenity. Nature enchants the senses and awakens the eroticism with her simplicity.

After extensive research, the concept of the labyrinth was chosen because of the special and interesting semiotics that characterizes it since antiquity. The research process resulted in some preliminary design investigations for a garden of pleasures that would take the form of a labyrinth in the forest of Sheikh Sou, inspired by medieval
labyrinths of love and the legend of the Minotaur. The labyrinth research and design investigations were also applied in the two previous categories.