Speaker : Petros Phokaides
Date: Monday, April 27, 2026
Time: 12:30-13:30
Place: FFB- 22
Title : Architectural History and Theory Talks invites you to the talk ‘Architectural Histories of the Global Sunbelt’ by Petros Phokaides
Abstract
The lecture presents the historical and theoretical framework of the edited volume Coastal Architectures and Politics of Tourism: Leisurescapes in the Global Sunbelt (2022). It addresses the ways in which the term ‘Global Sunbelt’, coined jointly with co-editors P. Pyla and S. Bozdoğan, offers historiographical potential in rethinking the dividing lines of East–West and North–South, while foregrounding connections between leisure and tourism and broader issues of power, identity, religion, conflict, political economy, and nationalism, particularly in regional and formerly colonised contexts of the ‘Global South.’ Drawing on recent case studies, the lecture further critically interrogates the role of architectural design in shaping the landscapes and imaginaries of the ‘global sunbelt’, with a particular focus on the Eastern Mediterranean.
Bio
Petros Phokaides is an architect and assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Thessaly, where he teaches theories of architecture and design. His research focuses on architecture, infrastructures, and broader landscape transformations to understand postcolonial visions, geopolitics, and socio-environmental change with a special focus on the Global South.