Ioannis Despotopoulos

Ioannis Despotopoulos (Greek Ιωάννης Δεσποτόπουλος, Jan Despo, born January 7, 1903 Chios; † October 1, 1992 ) was a Greek representative modern architecture of the 1930s, and urban planners.

Biography

His parents had come from Smyrna to Chios. In Chios, he completed his schooling.

From 1924 to 1925 he studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar under Hannes Meyer and 1928 at the Royal Institute of Technology Hanover. In 1929 he obtained his degree and worked briefly in the office of Erich Mendelsohn in Berlin.

Back in Greece, he worked as an architect and was from 1932 to 1956 Co-founder, member and delegate of the Greek CIAM Group. At the National Technical University, Athens, he was from 1942 to 1946 and from 1961 to 1967 professor of architectural composition. In the meantime he had from 1947 to 1955 at the Technical Universities in Gothenburg and Uppsala in Sweden, and at Stockholm University as a visiting professor. In 1959 he received the first prize of an urban planning competition for the Cultural Centre of Athens. From this design, only the Conservatory of Athens ( Ωδείο Αθηνών ) ( 1969-85 ) was realized. The building is one of the most interesting public buildings of the post-war period in Athens. In addition to his professorship second time in Athens, he was appointed from 1960 to 1965 to the Chair of Urban Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

In the section architecture of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin ( West) was Despotopoulos ( Despo ) 1964-1979 Associate Member and 1979-1992 Member.

Executed buildings

The sanatoria " Sotiria " / Athens, in Tripoli, Peloponnese and in Asvestochori in Thessaloniki were the first affected by the modern buildings of its kind in Greece.

• Sanatorium Sotiria, Athens (1932-1935)
• Municipal Art Collection Chios (1935-1936)
• Tuberculosis sanatorium Tripoli, Peloponnese (1936-1940)
• Sanatorium and social center Asvestochori, Thessaloniki (1937-1940)
• Cultural centers in Sweden (1947-1960), among others in Umeå, Luleå, Stockholm - Kallhäll
• Cultural Centre Athens, competition 1st prize and order (1959 ) of which version of the Conservatory ( 1969-1985 )

Bibliography

• January Despo: The ideological structure of cities, lecture at the Berlin Bauwochen held on 15 September 1966 in the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Man, Berlin 1973, ISBN 3-7861-6164- X.

About Ioannis Despotopoulos (Jan Despo )

• To mystiko Axioma ( Tο μυστικό αξίωμα ), documentary by Spyros Papadopoulos ( 2006),