ANAFIOTIKA

Study Group: Tsiligkiridi Maria-Zoi, Chalkiopoulou Eleni
Professors: Sevastakis Dimitris, Chaidopoulos Giorgos
School of Architecture, National Technical University, April 2009

Anafiotika, a village of traditional architecture in the city of Athens, since its creation is considered marginal and the state until now is inactive. Through a process of analyzing the characteristics, qualities and problems of the settlement, we chose the points of intervention demonstrating that very small spaces shape our everyday life and our needs.

During the 1860's, internal migrants from Anafi and other islands of Cyclades come to Athens to help with the reconstruction of the city.They built Anafiotika, a small temporary settlement under the sacred rock of the Acropolis, which continue to live as a particular example of folk architecture in Athens.The village since the time of its creation is considered marginal and the state until now is inactive.

We chose to make a research to understand the operation of minimum architecture in the city, how everyday life shapes in places of the least squaremeters and how Anafiotika can continue to live.

Anafiotika is the closest part of the city to the Acropolis, where the houses are hooked on the steep slope of the rock and the city seems to be sitting on it.A settlement between the pressure of the Sacred Rock and the city.

The morphology and structure are the distinctive features of the settlement: a)the construction respects the geology of the ground, b)the houses are room of just a few square meters (6m²), c)public and private space are mixed, d)the plaster has a special texture and reminds of Cyclades, e)there is a wide variety of windows(colors and frames).

Anafiotika is and has always been a place of residence.In the narrow streets the residents are mixed with tourists who try to reach the archaeological site. Although Anafiotika is a passage for tourists, the state does not conserve the houses.The residents are the only ones who take care of the houses and keep clean the passages through their village.The abandoned houses are left empty and they turn to ruins.

MAIN IDEA
Our basic idea is to identify these problematic spots of the village and interfere in a way that can make the problem fade out.The inhabited houses remain unchanged while the ruins are restored and come to life again.

Apart from the existing residential use, we propose that specific houses of the village can be used for a framework of research programs involving small groups hosted in the settlement of individual scholars, possibly from different fields.In detail, the places we recommend are: a)private places of temporary residence, b)public spaces which provide workplaces for the researchers, space for exhibitions, file space for gathering material and an information space for the ones who want to get information for the programs.

The public spaces are four(four houses), interspersed in the settlement, join the main streets of the village.They can be visited not only by the researchers but the residents as well.The places of temporary residence are also four and occupy positions in the upper limit of the village. There, someone can have full view of their position in relation to the city, and ancient landmarks.Each house of residence has 6-9m2 and can accommodate two people.

We intervene in these 8 buildings taking into consideration their condition, making the following classification:

a.internal restoration for the buildigs(that are in a good condition),
b.internal restoration and roof restoration(if it has been demolished),
c.construction of a new inner shell and maintenance of the existing shell.

The new housing provides a wealthier place to live and the old walls maintain the original quality of the settlement(plaster, organic continuity of the rock, old frames) with minor constructive intervention.

From the 8 buildings we choose to analyze 3.One public space(30) and two houses(63,26).For each one of them we approach the constructive issue so as not to alter the basic features, like the spatial and the plastic quality.

Entering the building 30(workspace and temporary exhibition), one can meet a free space with exhibition panels which can be moved manually, or can be hunged in slots in the rock according to the needs.The second area is formed as a workspace using three polymorphic panels with computers-screens attached to them.  When the building is used only for exhibitions, the counters close and the screens are used for the purposes of the exhibition.
The main body of the costruction is composed of steel beams, the walls and the roof are coated with plywood and the external covering consists of vertical boards of unequal thickness for the morphological subdivision of the mass. Inside the building the rock remains evident.

The building 63(home) is constructed with the same way as the building 30.

The building 26(home) is formed only internally by restoring the existing walls.

Very small spaces, where the public and the private space get mixed, shape our way of life and our needs. Anafiotika have to continue to live because they are a characteristic example of the special relationship between people and space, home and yard, residents and passengers, crowd and individual.It is a settlement that proves through the years that it is much more than a small example of folk architecture in the complex collage of the city of Athens.