Between Seas
Design Studio 7
This Studio project consisted in the intervention on a Greek acropolis.
The brief of the "ACROPOLIS" deals with a very regular condition in the Greek and Mediterranean landscape: the need for a contemporary architectural intervention within a historically charged and topographically intense countryside.
The proposed centre responds to the specificities of the site: the unruly ground, the ancient relics, the diverse ecosystem, the airport and touristic routes. In that sense it functions as an "amplifier" of the experience of the site.
It takes form through prefabricated wood boxes and a plastic canopy (like the ones of greenhouses), ephemeral architecture that exists already in this ecosystem. The goal of this intervention is not to introduce a new typology of architecture and to not further transform the landscape in a permanent way, building something that integrates perfectly with what’s already there and that can be completely remove.
The landscape was a major concern in this project: The canopy covering the complex and climbing the mountain merges with the other greenhouses on the field creating the sense to those who are at the top of the acropolis to be surrounded by two seas: the ionian sea on one side, and a figurative plastic sea created by the greenhouses in the other.
The complex holds a diverse program which includes: a museum to exhibit the ancient relics in site, an open agora/theatre, administration offices, a restaurant, a research labs, researchers temporary houses, and seminar rooms.
