The MARes in Hybrid Arts program of the Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University, cordially invites all interested parties to attend the public defense of the following Master’s thesis:
Thesis Title:
LivArch: A Living Archive towards a Living Architecture: Developing an Interspecies Design Methodology with Apis Mellifera
Candidate:
Vaia Tsiokou
Supervisor:
Adam Zaretsky
Date & Time:
16 September 2026 - 19:00 Athens, Greece / 12:00 New York, USA
Join via Zoom:
https://ionio-gr.zoom.us/j/98027379943
Examination Committee
- Adam Zaretsky - Visiting Lecturer, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
- Tania Tsiridou - EEP, Department of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University
- Andreas Sitorengo - Associate Professor, Department of Interior Architecture, University of West Attica
About the Thesis
This thesis examines bee pollinator decline as a symptom of a broader epistemological tendency to objectify living systems and reduce their complexity to discretised and governable functions. Drawing a parallel between the mechanisation of nature into fragmented ecological services, such as robotic pollination, and the historical reduction of the female reproductive body into isolated biological functions that can be technologically managed and commodified, this research asks how design practice might engage ecological complexity to restore nature without reproducing the structures of control that have contributed to its disruption in the first place. Through a womb–hive analogy inspired by the “social womb” concept, this thesis brings forward an Ecology of Reproductive Care offering a foresight-oriented perspective for Industry 6.0 through a LivArch holistic methodology that integrates honeybee ethology, colony intelligence, ecological time, hive microclimate, material ecotoxicity and end-of-life considerations, computational design, digital fabrication, artistic practice, and cultural interpretation. Distinct from predominantly top-down design practices in limited contact with other species or bio-collaborative artistic practices limited to sculptural explorations, LivArch acknowledges honeybees (Apis mellifera) as autonomous agents with idiosyncratic characteristics, capable of accepting, modifying, rejecting, or abandoning designed conditions. The collaborative experiences with Althaea and Isis, the two colonies involved in the study, reportedly reveal ethical questions and decisions on care, reproductive autonomy, refusal, uncertainty, and differing temporal rhythms as interdependent dimensions of interspecies negotiation. LivArch thus presents itself not as a finalised prototype, but as a Living Archive advancing a Living Architecture, ultimately establishing a methodological framework that embraces multispecies representation and shifts architectural practice from designing for other species to designing in collaboration with them.
About the Candidate
Vaia Tsiokou is an architect, computational designer, and researcher, of Greek-Italian origin, based in Athens, Greece. She holds a BA in Interior Architecture, Applied Arts & Product Design from the Technological Educational Institute of Athens, a MSc in Integrative Technologies & Architectural Design Research from the University of Stuttgart, and a PGCert in Biomimetics from the Hellenic Open University. Her expertise spans additive manufacturing, Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) improvement, circularity, Design-for-All, and apiculture. In recent years, she has contributed to and led EU-funded R&D projects as both a researcher and project manager, advancing approaches centred on sustainability, circularity, and inclusivity. Currently completing the MARes in Hybrid Arts at the Ionian University, her research integrates computational design, sustainable materials, and 3D-printing to develop nature-inclusive architectures for coexistence with bees, proposing an Ecology of Reproductive Care in which architecture acts as a mediator within a more-than-human world. Her research contribution is to act as a “Delphic Bee”, through whom another form of intelligence (i.e., Apis mellifera) can become perceptible and represented, framing LivArch as a Living Archive towards a Living Architecture.
Attendance
The defense is open to the public. Students, researchers, artists, and all interested individuals are welcome to attend.
MARes in Hybrid Arts
https://avarts.ionio.gr/mares/
In connection with her thesis research, Vaia Tsiokou will also present her hybrid art and science project exhibition on human–bee coexistence on 14 September 2026, 18:30–21:30, at the Youth & Culture Centre of the Municipality of Alimos, Athens. More information: https://alimos.gov.gr/yvridiki-ekthesi-technis-epistimis-synyparxi-anthropou-kai-melissas/
