HELLENIKON METROPOLITAN PARK & URBAN DEVELOPMENT ATHENS 2004
CATEGORY: MASTER PLANS AND LANDSCAPES
CLIENT: The Hellenic Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, Organization of Planning and Environmental Protection of Athens
SITE SURFACE: 540 ha
STATUS: Participation in competition
AWARDS: 2nd PRIZE, ‘International Ideas Competition for the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park and Urban Development’, Athens, March 2004
CREDITS: Architectural team: Vassiliki Agorastidou, Lito Ioannidou, Bouki Babalou- Noukaki, Antonis Noukakis. Principal collaborators: Anastasia Noukaki, Panayota Karamanea (Landscape architect). Collaborators: Architects: Elisavet Plaini, Giorgos Kanavakis, Ana Garcia. Students of architecture: Pantelis Theodorakis, Yorgis Noukakis. Consultants: Giannis Dokoumetzidis (Civil- traffic engineer), Spyros Kyriakos (Agriculturalist), Kostas Zaharios (Mechanical engineer)
CLIENT: The Hellenic Ministry of the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, Organization of Planning and Environmental Protection of Athens
SITE SURFACE: 540 ha
STATUS: Participation in competition
AWARDS: 2nd PRIZE, ‘International Ideas Competition for the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park and Urban Development’, Athens, March 2004
CREDITS: Architectural team: Vassiliki Agorastidou, Lito Ioannidou, Bouki Babalou- Noukaki, Antonis Noukakis. Principal collaborators: Anastasia Noukaki, Panayota Karamanea (Landscape architect). Collaborators: Architects: Elisavet Plaini, Giorgos Kanavakis, Ana Garcia. Students of architecture: Pantelis Theodorakis, Yorgis Noukakis. Consultants: Giannis Dokoumetzidis (Civil- traffic engineer), Spyros Kyriakos (Agriculturalist), Kostas Zaharios (Mechanical engineer)
The traces of the airport consist the most profound system inscribed on the site. The dynamic of the linear form is spatially expressed as an absolute transcendental “cosmic” landscape where the sky and the open horizon prevail.
The park is articulated along the air corridors complex, creating a continuous green area as an extension of the Golf court and is closely related to the sea front.
The urban development is located at the east and the southeast part of the site, as a continuation of the isolated settlement of Hellinikon.
A series of transversal axes of movement, strongly planted, cut across the park in a regular way, connecting the inland with the sea front. They form entrances and at the same time they intensify the feeling of transition from one spatial area to another as an extension of nature into the urban fabric.
We perceive the airport site as an abandoned place at danger to be mangled by exploitation that will make every trace and identity disappear. We aim in retaining the feeling and the memory of the place by keeping the trace of the air corridor and using it as the main structural axis.
The air corridor becomes a promenade and the main park area expands all along around it.
The two ends of the airport are considered as two poles with opposite notional and symbolic content:
The northern neighbors on areas of intense urbanization. It symbolizes the dynamic time of the infinite development and everyday action. The south end symbolizes the static, frozen time of memory and is regarded as a memorial landscape referring to the abandoned airport.
Water follows a course parallel to the central axis as a symbolic notion of the Mediterranean Sea.
The areas of transition from urban to natural function as zones of collision and completion. The sense of time and the circle of seasons, the relations man- time, nature- time are meanings used to organize the Park.
The whole concept is articulated on the idea of three zones that correspond to the meanings of stability, periodicity and the ephemeral.
Zone A - Stability
Located between the urbanized area and the main park is a cultivated area of Mediterranean plants symbolizing stability and the humans’ collaboration with nature.
Zone B - Periodicity
An artificial landscape zone with a high sense of seasonality. It contains: a Botanic garden of Mediterranean flora, a Meadow, a Flowerbed with Apiary
Zone C - Ephemeral
An area of mixed and versatile uses, divided in smaller unities for informal activities symbolizing the ephemeral. It consists of: 'the north edge of the airport' (a recreational area for the young), the area used by researching agriculturalists, the places that generate informal activities
The plantation is used as a means of organization and manipulation of spatial qualities. The linear high vegetation highlights and circumscribes spaces, directing perspectives and views. The extensive low vegetation marks and differentiates the various colour unities. The seasonal changes and transformations contribute to the perception of the annual circular notion.
Four zones of dense and high vegetation permeate the park. They define and mark the main routes.
They are consisted of different types of plantation completing the colour variety.
The park is articulated along the air corridors complex, creating a continuous green area as an extension of the Golf court and is closely related to the sea front.
The urban development is located at the east and the southeast part of the site, as a continuation of the isolated settlement of Hellinikon.
A series of transversal axes of movement, strongly planted, cut across the park in a regular way, connecting the inland with the sea front. They form entrances and at the same time they intensify the feeling of transition from one spatial area to another as an extension of nature into the urban fabric.
We perceive the airport site as an abandoned place at danger to be mangled by exploitation that will make every trace and identity disappear. We aim in retaining the feeling and the memory of the place by keeping the trace of the air corridor and using it as the main structural axis.
The air corridor becomes a promenade and the main park area expands all along around it.
The two ends of the airport are considered as two poles with opposite notional and symbolic content:
The northern neighbors on areas of intense urbanization. It symbolizes the dynamic time of the infinite development and everyday action. The south end symbolizes the static, frozen time of memory and is regarded as a memorial landscape referring to the abandoned airport.
Water follows a course parallel to the central axis as a symbolic notion of the Mediterranean Sea.
The areas of transition from urban to natural function as zones of collision and completion. The sense of time and the circle of seasons, the relations man- time, nature- time are meanings used to organize the Park.
The whole concept is articulated on the idea of three zones that correspond to the meanings of stability, periodicity and the ephemeral.
Zone A - Stability
Located between the urbanized area and the main park is a cultivated area of Mediterranean plants symbolizing stability and the humans’ collaboration with nature.
Zone B - Periodicity
An artificial landscape zone with a high sense of seasonality. It contains: a Botanic garden of Mediterranean flora, a Meadow, a Flowerbed with Apiary
Zone C - Ephemeral
An area of mixed and versatile uses, divided in smaller unities for informal activities symbolizing the ephemeral. It consists of: 'the north edge of the airport' (a recreational area for the young), the area used by researching agriculturalists, the places that generate informal activities
The plantation is used as a means of organization and manipulation of spatial qualities. The linear high vegetation highlights and circumscribes spaces, directing perspectives and views. The extensive low vegetation marks and differentiates the various colour unities. The seasonal changes and transformations contribute to the perception of the annual circular notion.
Four zones of dense and high vegetation permeate the park. They define and mark the main routes.
They are consisted of different types of plantation completing the colour variety.
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