XOPA
XOPA is a young architecture practice comprised of architects from Tbilisi, Moscow and London, founded in 2015. The bureau is equally preoccupied with design, publishing and education.
“Χώρα rests between the sensible and the intelligible, through which everything passes but in which nothing is retained.” Being of Greek origin, the name of the bureau comprehensively covers and describes the attitude, perception and vision of their own being.
Khukhula
“Xuxula” project takes an informal, liberating approach to Georgi’s informal cultural heritage. The definition of the word Xuxula covers not only vernacular huts and sheds, but also the spaces between and around them. The rigidity of the planned urban fabric creates the premises for the informal subtle spatial infills – xuxula- to appear.
These structures precisely reflect the economic, social and political context of the post-Soviet city, as well as the essential demand for a holistic and humane approach in urban design. This phenomenon could be found in the whole variety of spatial interventions or appropriations of the existing built fabric.
Typologically it ranges from additions to residential blocks, via garages and carport extensions, to private gardens and freestanding structures.
Distilling the informality in both aesthetic and structural manners, we are testing materiality and bricolage in urbanism and architecture. We simulate and document the very nature of Xuxula phenomenon.
This Xuxula-pavilion is our first attempt to capture and reveal the essence of the informality as a design method.